Fucked nihonjin

[sillygirl]

Well, looks like the shoe is on the other foot.

I've been working at my town's university. One of the Japanese MA students has lost it (38 yr old) and is now in a mental hospital.

Uni starts panicking - local authority's interpreter service don't do Japanese.

Uni finds Sillygirl.

Sillygirl has to call his poor old mum in Japan to tell her her son is in the hospital.

Sillygirl cannot remember how to say mentally ill in Japanese (quick, someone tell me) so I said he has a problem with his mind! (Ooops)

Have to go to hospital to visit said nutty J guy with Student Support bloke because (and this kills me) the woman at the Japanese Embassy told me that it is too far from London to come and help him. (2 hours by car)

Haven't told mum he's been kicked out of his apartment because he wrecked the place, and he has no money. Will have to tell her when she comes over.....

...hmmm, should be interesting.

[Sarutaro]

Hmm....insanity due to lack of good rice. Seen it before. It's tragic.

[American Oyaji]

Good luck sillygirl.

Maybe some good will come of it for you.

[vir-jin]

Well, looks like the shoe is on the other foot.

I've been working at my town's university. One of the Japanese MA students has lost it (38 yr old) and is now in a mental hospital.

Uni starts panicking - local authority's interpreter service don't do Japanese.

Uni finds Sillygirl.

sillygirl! this is my horrorvision. I am happy they found you! good luck for a happy end! send him home with mami !

[emperor]

Ive met a Japanese guy in Ireland whos planning on killing himself - but promised his landlord not to do it while living there - so now the landlord is morally trapped into putting up with his shit (he dosent act like the generic mild-mannered japanese of ye old stereotype - hes become a slam-the-door and shout curses type).
Hes hates Japan and dosent want to go back.
..all this started recently when a cheque came for 2 or 3 million quid from the life-insurance policy from his fathers suicide (lost his job in the recession - topped himself to get the money for the family) while he was a teenager - his mother committed suicide a month after the father: now hes got all this bloody money sitting in his bank a/c and all he can do is talk about topping himself

[Papa-Lazarou]

A Japanese Guy studying abroad?

Are you sure?

[Charles]

...I've been working at my town's university. One of the Japanese MA students has lost it (38 yr old) and is now in a mental hospital...

Hmm.. I've seen this before, a nihonjin expat at our school was hospitalized in similar circumstances. Let me offer some unsolicited advice.

You really MUST get this guy connected with some other local nihonjin. There is something healing about being with others who share your language and culture, and have been through the trials of life in a foreign country. Your poor nihonjin student will not feel free to vent his frustrations to anyone but a nihonjin, he feels like he is alone and nobody else can understand his problem. Connect him with someone who can understand his problem, another nihonjin expat. He may even reject contact with other nihonjin, he may not realize how this could help him. But try anyway. I'm sure there must be some nihonjin around who could help.

BTW, nice to see vir-jin is still around. We were wondering where you were, hadn't seen any postings lately. Or are you hiding out in the powder room where us boys can't see you?

[emperor]

get this guy connected with some other local nihonjin. There is something healing about being with others who share your language and culture, and have been through the trials of life in a foreign country. Your poor nihonjin student will not feel free to vent his frustrations to anyone but a nihonjin

Only problem there is the nihonjin part - eg. for market research in japan in depth survey are carried out one-on-one cause people are less likely to voice their true feelings in front of others in the group.
I reacon an inability to communicate distress is what has the country jumping infront of trains and breathing deep monoxide in cars.

[Charles]

get this guy connected with some other local nihonjin. There is something healing about being with others who share your language and culture, and have been through the trials of life in a foreign country. Your poor nihonjin student will not feel free to vent his frustrations to anyone but a nihonjin

Only problem there is the nihonjin part - eg. for market research in japan in depth survey are carried out one-on-one cause people are less likely to voice their true feelings in front of others in the group.
I reacon an inability to communicate distress is what has the country jumping infront of trains and breathing deep monoxide in cars.

You're right, I meant he should connect with a nihonjin singular not plural. Sure it would be great if he had more than one nihonjin for support, but it would be better one on one rather than in a group. But it seems like it is difficult to round up ONE nihonjin to help this guy, let alone more than one.

[Reddeville]

Sorry for the lack of sympathy folks for the fucked nihonjin. I feel sorry for sillygirl having to carry the burden here - just make sure you distance yourself from okasan who will probably try to leech onto you to get you to do things for her and her weirdo son.

Lifes hard for nihonjin when they go to our countries.

They don`t pay key money, `gifts` of thousands of dollars to the owner/real estate agent; They don`t get turned away again and again from renting because they are Japanese;
They trash their accommodation when they feel like it and skip out on their bills, and don`t have to think that because they`re Japanese theyre representing their race to the world and our countries therefor have the natural right to discriminate againt all Japanese for every little incident;
They have more rights in their student time studying abroad than we do living here in Japan for longer;
They can run screaming to the law about anything and if they don`t get catered to they can get a lawyer who helps them in minimal time - compare with the 3 years old and still going on cases in Japan. If you are rich enough to get a lawyer in the first place.

Sorry folks - no sympathy. So what if theyre lonely, same goes for gaijin in Japan and you`re gonna get jack support and you`re gonna get the money taken from you like you`re some human ATM, and you`re gonna listen to bullshit again and again, stereotyping your country, whining about Hiroshima and Nagasaki not to forget the firebombing of Tokyo (yes, strange how those things happened to Japan which did nothing more than `advance peacefully` into Korea, China etc), you`re gonna get racist comments in ya face and not be able to swing back whether it`s that dogass ugly woman over 50 or that ugly chimp on the train, drunk, kusai and screaming about `Kusai gaijin`.

You know what I found about fuckednihonjin in the US - they really resented not being special. The `But we are Japanese` has zilch impact in a country as multicultural as the US. I find this time and time again as an eikaiwa teacher - the fuckednihonjin have the attitude that they`re doing us all a favor by going on a homestay to the US/Canda/England/Australia or wherever. Then they find the countries are crowded with folks with Asian looks and they get mistaken for Chinese - hey that`s a great lesson for them!

[sillygirl]

UPDATE:

Went to the hospital pyschiatric ward last Friday. Well, for a start the guy is a an MA student in Fine Arts, so he's already half mental...

So, there is me, him, 2 doctors and 2 social workers. They asked me to ask him what the main trigger of this episode was. His answer...

....the food in England.

Um. Had to stop myself from chiming in "Yeah, I know, it's minging, innit" So I duly translated to bemused silence from the experts.

I told him I was going to talk to his ma, any message? Yeah, please ask her to send ocha and cup ramen. Called his mum. She asks me:

"Should I send him some tofu, too?"

Honestly, if it wasn't for the tortured, haunted look on this guys face, I would have PMSL.

They also asked him what it felt like when he flipped out, and he answered "like I was in a fairy tale, people didn't seem real".

Which was something I could relate to. I lived in Japan for 11 years.

End of report.

Special Agent Sillygirl over and out.

[Mulboyne]

I am tempted to print that out, frame it and put it up in my toilet.

[sillygirl]

Forgot to add...

Doctor: Do you remember how you got to this hospital?

FN: Uh, yes. I think I was arrested for breaking and entering the flat next door......

[Naniwan Kid]

Best of luck to you, sillygirl.

I had a former high school then college buddy track me down a couple years ago. He was an f'ed nihonjin of the classic scale. After 3 years in an American high school and one in college he would watch a Japanese movie and say "It's getting easier to read the subtitles than listen to the Japanese." I should have known this was leading to a deeper problem. Eventually he said he had no language, because he was losing his Japanese, but his English wasn't that great.

I lost track of him for 6 or 7 years, then he suddenly found me. Another buddy and I went to visit him, and it was bizarre. He claimed he was in a skiing accident and "had amnesia for about a year." His family had disowned him after he didn't attend his father's funeral. His apartment was a pigsty, with a kitchen full of garbage.

A few weeks later he called up. He had been evicted from his apartment. More literally, a giant lock was on his door. He couldn't figure out why, until I asked if he had paid rent. A little investigation revealed he probably hadn't paid rent in over four months. And he had the money, too. His mother had maintained his "allowence", probably to keep him in America. We went the the bank, took out some money, bought him a plane ticket to Japan, drove him to the airport and dropped him off.

A few weeks later I got a phone call. It was him again. He was in the hospital, but wasn't sure why (sound familiar?). It turns out he got to the airport returned the plane ticket and took a taxi back to downtown. He eventually found a cheap place to live, kinda a hippie home with too many people living in one house.

Again, my friend and I got him, convinced him he needed to go back ot Japan, got a plane ticket, put him in a taxi and sent him to the airport.

A few months went by and we were over at another buddy's house drinking beer. My buddy's wife calls saying "There is some guy on the porch wanting to come in. Get over here!"

We went over there and, sure enough, there he was. He wanted to sleep there, and we finally had to wash our hands of it. Like Reddeville said, he demanded a bed. Voices were raised. My friend's wife was scared, and was going to call the cops. It seems our f'ed nihonjin had been sleeping on the streets after being kicked out of the hippie house, then a homeless shelter. I don't know if he still had money in the bank, but I imagine he did. His family was loaded. He drove a brand new M-3 in high school, and 8 years later he was homeless....it's a sad thing to see.

[sillygirl]

Bloody hell NK! That's well fucked....

My bloke has been kicked out of his aparto for trashing it.....doesn't seem to understand he is homeless. He can't leave hospital til he has somewhere to live. The university are trying to find somewhere, but he's only here til the end of Dec.

He keeps saying he wants a big place with a studio so he can paint. Er....

Apparently he was also mumbling on about what a lazy bunch Brits are and our crappy work ethic (what? Not having a word for karoshi?) and did the student support worker think that men were more intelligent that women...(uni guy NOT impressed. Then again, this is a uni that has a course in Lesbian Studies, so they are ULTRA PC!!)

Oh yeah. He said the landlady had always had it in for him, because he was Japanese...

[sirwanksalot]

Are you getting payed to help this guy? If not I'd tell him to gaman or go back to Japan. He sounds like a selfish baby that needs to be smacked.

[Naniwan Kid]

They sound like very similar stories. He, too, felt people were out to get him, and that the cops were racist against Japanese. (I don't know what kind of run-ins he had.)

I also know he smoked weed like it was going out of style when I knew him, and I imagine harder stuff after we first lost touch. I don't know if it has anything to do with it...

[Greji]

They sound like very similar stories. He, too, felt people were out to get him, and that the cops were racist against Japanese. (I don't know what kind of run-ins he had.)

There are similar stories with the FJ's and FG's. They come into country and it is so great they immediately attempt to go native. This lasts until the thrill and newness wears off. Then it is everyone against them. They usually have disavowed their home country as backward, so they feel they can't go home. They end up super-paranoid and are not usually great people to have a pint with!

I knew an FG in Tachikawa that would wear nothing but a formal kimono for daily dress and didn't like to hang around other FGs cause he was now Japanese. Completely over the brink. When the J's got tired of his novelty and stopped patronizing him, he realized he would never be a J-guy and from his own making, was generally isolated from the world. Needless to say, he eventually went bonkers. They put in the funny farm for awhile and finally deported him.

Takes all kinds!

[GomiGirl]

"Whereever you go, there you are." (sic)

Some people are just more inclined to be fucked anywhere. Perhaps these circumstances just bring things to a head sooner. Maybe they are just more noticable when away from their home country.




Most of us FG's are pretty normal aren't we.... (ok don't answer that one!!)

[kurohinge1]

... Some people are just more inclined to be fucked anywhere. Perhaps these circumstances just bring things to a head sooner. Maybe they are just more noticable when away from their home country.

Most of us FG's are pretty normal aren't we.... (ok don't answer that one!!)

Just keeping your medication GG and we'll like you a lot more.

I agree, though, that pressures, like living in a forieign country with limited or no support, must be a catalyst for the mental demise of people with poor coping mechanisms or pre-existing problems.

Or that's what the voices tell me.

[amdg]

[sillygirl]

He has only been here a year. His English is minimal but passable. However, they wanted someone to translate into Japanese because his listening skills were shite, and also to double check he understood. For instance, in the meeting with the doctors, he misunderstood 'medication' for 'education'.

(Yes, he's on the funny pills...)

[Taro Toporific]

.. 8 years later he was homeless....it's a sad thing to see.

Butt common enough in Kanto.

[kurohinge1]

... Butt common enough in Kanto ...

Kanto Ketsu Crawler ... possibly a sequel to The Kanto Wanderer?



Or maybe someone finally followed my suggestion to use the homeless as human bike racks.



PS: I'm laughing now because I know that could be me one day and it won't be that funny then.

[Adhesive]

[Naniwan Kid]

Man, that is a sad story. It's weird what can happen to people. That sounds similar to an African American woman I knew who flipped out in Japan. She was sent home after only a couple months (she stopped showing up to work). I think we don't always give "culture shock" the credit it deserves.

[ichigo partygirl]

Man, that is a sad story. It's weird what can happen to people. That sounds similar to an African American woman I knew who flipped out in Japan. She was sent home after only a couple months (she stopped showing up to work). I think we don't always give "culture shock" the credit it deserves.

thats a good point. I think culture shock combined with a person that already has problems is a really explosive combination.
Take a person with issues out of there support group and put them in a foreign culture and not so great things are bound to happen.