8 Things I don't miss about living in Japan

[GomiGirl]

8 Things I don't miss about living in Japan
By Evangeline Kuma

Mostly standard stuff but quite well well written.

My faves:

The stares.

I don’t mind the curious gaze of adorable little peachy-cheeked kids, or the kindly, interested glances of wrinkly Japanese grannies. I’m talking about the sullen schoolgirl trying to kill you with her eyes. The old fart salarymen who glare at you with brazen contempt. The manicured, plucked and Louis Vuitton-bedecked young woman whose mouth drops open with utter disgust when she claps eyes on your unwashed foreign self. If you simply must STARE at the foreigner, please to rearrange your face first so it doesn’t look like quite so much like someone is trying to force feed you poop. Because that is never a good look.

snip

The fact that, having lived in Japan, you can never go home again.

You will never be the same. For the rest of your life, you will sweat miso soup and cry warm sake. Well, not really. But, yeah, kinda. Japan has a singular ability to GET to you like no other country you will ever visit. You’ll be dreaming of cherry blossoms, all-you-can-drink karaoke, and naked communal bathing for the rest of your days. Of course, you could always go back… TC mark

[yanpa]

For a moment there I thought you were leaving us

[GomiGirl]

For a moment there I thought you were leaving us

Nah - the last one applies to me. You got me for a while yet.

[omae mona]

The stares.

I don’t mind the curious gaze of adorable little peachy-cheeked kids, or the kindly, interested glances of wrinkly Japanese grannies. I’m talking about the sullen schoolgirl trying to kill you with her eyes. The old fart salarymen who glare at you with brazen contempt. The manicured, plucked and Louis Vuitton-bedecked young woman whose mouth drops open with utter disgust when she claps eyes on your unwashed foreign self. If you simply must STARE at the foreigner, please to rearrange your face first so it doesn’t look like quite so much like someone is trying to force feed you poop. Because that is never a good look.

I still don't quite understand whether it's just the regulars on debito.org and a bunch of bloggers, or are most resident FG this paranoid? Or are they just observant? Seems like a lot of us have the ability to read the minds of passers by and know they're not just in a bad mood, not just suffering from Resting Bitchy Face syndrome, not giving the same look to everybody, but rather a directing their looks at us. And doing so specifically because we're foreign.

I'm not blessed with that talent. Thank god!

[Samurai_Jerk]

The stares.

I don’t mind the curious gaze of adorable little peachy-cheeked kids, or the kindly, interested glances of wrinkly Japanese grannies. I’m talking about the sullen schoolgirl trying to kill you with her eyes. The old fart salarymen who glare at you with brazen contempt. The manicured, plucked and Louis Vuitton-bedecked young woman whose mouth drops open with utter disgust when she claps eyes on your unwashed foreign self. If you simply must STARE at the foreigner, please to rearrange your face first so it doesn’t look like quite so much like someone is trying to force feed you poop. Because that is never a good look.

I still don't quite understand whether it's just the regulars on debito.org and a bunch of bloggers, or are most resident FG this paranoid? Or are they just observant? Seems like a lot of us have the ability to read the minds of passers by and know they're not just in a bad mood, not just suffering from Resting Bitchy Face syndrome, not giving the same look to everybody, but rather a directing their looks at us. And doing so specifically because we're foreign.

I'm not blessed with that talent. Thank god!

About the only people I ever catch starting in Tokyo are other foreigners or Japanese toddlers.

[Coligny]

Toddlers and babies stares at anything...

and dun't get me started on poodles scared of black people...

But the bull... crown goes to this:

The fact that, having lived in Japan, you can never go home again.

You will never be the same. For the rest of your life, you will sweat miso soup and cry warm sake. Well, not really. But, yeah, kinda. Japan has a singular ability to GET to you like no other country you will ever visit. You’ll be dreaming of cherry blossoms, all-you-can-drink karaoke, and naked communal bathing for the rest of your days. Of course, you could always go back… TC mark

How about... nope, no, nope nopity no...
trains run on time and mail never get lost. sure i might miss that...
fucking overcrowded park for the 1 week of cherry blossom... dafuq...
sake... vodak or antifreeze can easily replace it...
miso... maybe if you come from a food challenged country like england or somalia...
karaoke... common bath... isn't that what inmates in low security jails do ?

[Yokohammer]

I've come to believe that there are some people who simply can't handle the fact that they're visually different, so they end up sort of "staring at themselves" all the time, metaphorically speaking, and the pressure just eats them up. The problem is more their perception of how they are perceived than the way they are actually perceived. These are people who can only feel safe in a uniform majority group, whether they understand that or not, and they are therefore the kind of people who will never be comfortable out of their natural milieu.

I 'm pretty sure that's why some FGs slowly go crazy here.
I'm also pretty sure Debito and his fan club fall into that category.

Of course there really is racism ... everywhere ... it just comes down to how you deal with it.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I've come to believe that there are some people who simply can't handle the fact that they're visually different, so they end up sort of "staring at themselves" all the time, metaphorically speaking, and the pressure just eats them up. The problem is more their perception of how they are perceived than the way they are actually perceived. These are people who can only feel safe in a uniform majority group, whether they understand that or not, and they are therefore the kind of people who will never be comfortable out of their natural milieu.

I 'm pretty sure that's why some FGs slowly go crazy here.
I'm also pretty sure Debito and his fan club fall into that category.

Of course there really is racism ... everywhere ... it just comes down to how you deal with it.

Are you saying, Hammer, that I'm not entitled to feel entitled because I'm white?
If so, that's pretty racist....

[Yokohammer]

Are you saying, Hammer, that I'm not entitled to feel entitled because I'm white?
If so, that's pretty racist....

Ha!

You can feel as entitled as you like (as so many do). Just don't get all bent out of shape when people don't treat you the way you think you're entitled to be treated (as so many do).

Hmm ... that could be another part of the problem right there ...

[omae mona]

I've come to believe that there are some people who simply can't handle the fact that they're visually different, so they end up sort of "staring at themselves" all the time, metaphorically speaking, and the pressure just eats them up. The problem is more their perception of how they are perceived than the way they are actually perceived. These are people who can only feel safe in a uniform majority group, whether they understand that or not, and they are therefore the kind of people who will never be comfortable out of their natural milieu.

I 'm pretty sure that's why some FGs slowly go crazy here.
I'm also pretty sure Debito and his fan club fall into that category.

I agree, Hammer. But I think there's one other element at work sometimes: astounding levels of arrogance. The belief that Japanese people around you care enough to even give you a thought, much less contort their face into a grimace, seems delusional to me. Most people don't think anything about strangers around them, and I am pretty sure they put even less thought into thinking about gaijin strangers around them. We are so poorly integrated into society (yes, I know, I am probably speaking for myself only) that we ain't got nothin' to do with their daily life. I don't quite understand what leads these bloggers to think they are important enough to get stared at.

I do agree strongly with the blogger about one topic: the squat toilets. Don't like 'em. Don't even know any Japanese people who like 'em. In a public toilet with both western & Japanese style toilets, I've never seen the Japanese style ones used voluntarily, when a western style one is available.

[Coligny]

To be honest the "stares"... well aside from toddlers and few 8 years old that seems to be the only one to find my car as cool as I do...
So... the "stares"... I got them more from gaijin "big in japan" girls who seems to be offended at my presence in 'their' japan... Especially the land monsters that also benefit from the 'exotic' aura... without which their usual 1 square meter mensuration put them in the "kill it with fire" category back home...

[legion]

About the only people I ever catch starting in Tokyo are other foreigners or Japanese toddlers.

Cos you is in my Japan muzafuka

[sublight]

Reading about the stares, my first thought was, "I bet she's white." Yep.

Here's a fun activity for you to try when you get back to America, kid: go ask a black person what it's like walking though an all-white neighborhood. Doesn't have to be a poor, redneck neighborhood; in fact, the more affluent, the better. Ask them how often the cops have stopped them to ask what they're doing there. Then, for fun, ask how many of those stares they got turned into people wanting to have friendly conversations with them.

[Russell]

Hmm, I don't have the feeling that I am much at the receiving end of stares, but sometimes there are those old buggers that look at me in total disgust.

Maybe it is just their robotic facial expression, but I can't help noticing.

Oh, and then there are those people who don't want to sit next to me in the train. That's because I make myself as big as I can, so that they think twice.

Wagamama?!? Yeah, but it's the only way to survive a long commute...

[Samurai_Jerk]

Reading about the stares, my first thought was, "I bet she's white." Yep.

Here's a fun activity for you to try when you get back to America, kid: go ask a black person what it's like walking though an all-white neighborhood. Doesn't have to be a poor, redneck neighborhood; in fact, the more affluent, the better. Ask them how often the cops have stopped them to ask what they're doing there. Then, for fun, ask how many of those stares they got turned into people wanting to have friendly conversations with them.

Trust me. It works the same way for white guys going into black or Hispanic neighborhoods. In fact it's probably even worse.

[J.A.F.O]

Reading about the stares, my first thought was, "I bet she's white." Yep.

Here's a fun activity for you to try when you get back to America, kid: go ask a black person what it's like walking though an all-white neighborhood. Doesn't have to be a poor, redneck neighborhood; in fact, the more affluent, the better. Ask them how often the cops have stopped them to ask what they're doing there. Then, for fun, ask how many of those stares they got turned into people wanting to have friendly conversations with them.

Trust me. It works the same way for white guys going into black or Hispanic neighborhoods. In fact it's probably even worse.

Yeps, I was just about to say the same thing. Take any white dude, the more affluent the better, and drop him off in watts. Usain Bolt might have a hard time keeping up with how fast he should be running.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Take any white dude, the more affluent the better, and drop him off in watts.

Take the banker dudes from Wall Street and force them to wear KKK robes and quote Tarantino movie scripts for good measure...or is illegal to punish those types in the Untied States?

[Yokohammer]

Yeps, I was just about to say the same thing. Take any white dude, the more affluent the better, and drop him off in watts. Usain Bolt might have a hard time keeping up with how fast he should be running.

I ... about as white as you can get ... actually spent some time in Watts back in the 80's.

I was traveling to the US fairly frequently for business at the time, and it just so happened that a buddy of mine who I used to hang out with in Japan had moved back to the US and was living in Watts with his family. So I went to visit. Several times.

I'm willing to accept that being with him made a difference, but I had no problems whatsoever and was actually treated pretty well, by American standards.

Not really trying to make a point or anything. Just relating an anecdote since the subject of Watts came up.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Reading about the stares, my first thought was, "I bet she's white." Yep.

Here's a fun activity for you to try when you get back to America, kid: go ask a black person what it's like walking though an all-white neighborhood. Doesn't have to be a poor, redneck neighborhood; in fact, the more affluent, the better. Ask them how often the cops have stopped them to ask what they're doing there. Then, for fun, ask how many of those stares they got turned into people wanting to have friendly conversations with them.

Trust me. It works the same way for white guys going into black or Hispanic neighborhoods. In fact it's probably even worse.

Yeps, I was just about to say the same thing. Take any white dude, the more affluent the better, and drop him off in watts. Usain Bolt might have a hard time keeping up with how fast he should be running.

A couple of times in high school in NYC minority friends invited me to their houses to hang out. Once in the South Bronx the other time in Jamaica, Queens. Both told me they fucked up by doing so because of the stares I was getting and more importantly the why-the-fuck-did-you-bring-that-cracker-here stares they were getting. The South Bronx was the worst because someone screamed something in Spanish from a high floor of an apartment building and threw a curtain rod at me. Luckily it (barely) missed. When I looked around everyone was on the block was laughing at me. Another time some of by boys were going to a black neighborhood in Brooklyn. I was supposed to go with them but the one guy from the neighbor said no way because they would beat the shit out of me for being white and him for bringing me. His beating would have been even worse because he was supposed to know better.

The only other time I've experience anything like that was in rural Laos. At least there the people smiled and said "hello", "bonjour", or "sabaidee" though.

[sillygirl]

When I first landed in 1993 in the inaka, I was sat in a park when 2 schoolgirls ran up to me, took a photo and ran off giggling. I also used to be given senbei or ume boshi by random old ladies or yakuza types (they loved my mum, used to get given loads of beer at the beach/pool etc).

Fast forward 10 years, more gaijins arrive and no more being the local freak show. Everyone in town knew me anyway....

[J.A.F.O]

Yeps, I was just about to say the same thing. Take any white dude, the more affluent the better, and drop him off in watts. Usain Bolt might have a hard time keeping up with how fast he should be running.

I ... about as white as you can get ... actually spent some time in Watts back in the 80's.

I was traveling to the US fairly frequently for business at the time, and it just so happened that a buddy of mine who I used to hang out with in Japan had moved back to the US and was living in Watts with his family. So I went to visit. Several times.

I'm willing to accept that being with him made a difference, but I had no problems whatsoever and was actually treated pretty well, by American standards.

Not really trying to make a point or anything. Just relating an anecdote since the subject of Watts came up.

I wish my experience in watts was so congenial.

[yanpa]

I'm willing to accept that being with him made a difference, but I had no problems whatsoever and was actually treated pretty well, by American standards.

You mean they kindly refrained from shooting you with a semi-automatic gun and burying your body in the desert?

(sorry, just yanking chains)

[Coligny]

Just the a quick welcome waterboarding...

[Great Thing]

The stares.

I don’t mind the curious gaze of adorable little peachy-cheeked kids, or the kindly, interested glances of wrinkly Japanese grannies. I’m talking about the sullen schoolgirl trying to kill you with her eyes. The old fart salarymen who glare at you with brazen contempt. The manicured, plucked and Louis Vuitton-bedecked young woman whose mouth drops open with utter disgust when she claps eyes on your unwashed foreign self. If you simply must STARE at the foreigner, please to rearrange your face first so it doesn’t look like quite so much like someone is trying to force feed you poop. Because that is never a good look.

I still don't quite understand whether it's just the regulars on debito.org and a bunch of bloggers, or are most resident FG this paranoid? Or are they just observant? Seems like a lot of us have the ability to read the minds of passers by and know they're not just in a bad mood, not just suffering from Resting Bitchy Face syndrome, not giving the same look to everybody, but rather a directing their looks at us. And doing so specifically because we're foreign.

I'm not blessed with that talent. Thank god!

For a minute there, I thought I wrote a blog post in my sleep. But I'm not a reasonably attractive white woman... yet.

But seriously, I totally relate to that one, and I've learned to tune out the negative treatment from passerby (literally, with headphones in public, playing the hits of the 80s, 90s and today). I don't remember the eye-daggers ever happening when I first came here last decade. Now it's at least once a day, whenever I'm outdoors.

[Taro Toporific]

I've learned to tune out the negative treatment from passersby (literally, with headphones in public, playing the hits of the 80s, 90s and today). I don't remember the eye-daggers ever happening when I first came here last decade. Now it's at least once a day, whenever I'm outdoors.

"Zombie Face" has always been de rigueur for salarymen, but with Japan's increasingly aging society "Pickle Face" is the new norm.
Don't worry. They hate everything and everyone. I loooove giving them my best goofy smile---sometimes a little secret-psycho wave.

[Coligny]

Geez... exact same here...

I call that my "Snoopy PsychoSmile"

clip-art-snoopy-124159.jpg

Also known as the "Cheshire Cat"

images.jpg

Absolutely forbidden by Me Julie when we go out together...


I mainly do it to overweight wanabee gangstaz/yankees/tug life L.A.style... of the japanese Inaka...

[wuchan]

I'm so lost here.


Ghost accounts with low post counts.

Taro making a rare recent post.

The shitty french fuck in the middle.


Cyka please come back to help me combat the stupid! Please!

[Marked Trail]

I'm so lost here.
Ghost accounts with low post counts.
Taro making a rare recent post.
The shitty french fuck in the middle.

"Lost"? Thine right eye so plitherates that thine left eye doth graze upon it.

THE SCARE STARE? For Japanese grannies, I just don’t look. If you do, the mindpoop will kill you. Only the curious gazen upon The Lost with utterested farts.

beer-or-die.jpg

[TennoChinko]

Take any white dude, the more affluent the better, and drop him off in watts.

Take the banker dudes from Wall Street and force them to wear KKK robes and quote Tarantino movie scripts for good measure...or is illegal to punish those types in the Untied States?

[Coligny]

I'm so lost here.


Ghost accounts with low post counts.

Taro making a rare recent post.

The shitty french fuck in the middle.


Cyka please come back to help me combat the stupid! Please!

Your mother lick Saddam's balls, you bacon eating infidel !

ALSO:

1328717517_truck-auto.info_maz_543-7310_1.jpg

Allah ouackbar, Allah ouackbar, Allah ouackbar...