Know anyone gone mad here?

[hidflect]

Is it a common experience to know gaijins who go crazy here? I've known a few and I nearly lost it myself so I was wondering... Can people give some feedback on the incidence? Most recent is a guy who I'll (fictitiously) call Hugh.. can't remember his last name. Anywayz, nice enough guy yadayada. He teaches out in the sticks drinking himself to sleep every night if not ringing friends at 3am to babble inanely and rolls into Tokyo on FriSaturday which is a unique day coz its 48 hours long. He mumbles and shambles around in the bars staring blankly, or prattles endlessly, obssessing about an enormous number of personal details and every J-chick he meets thinks he's drunk - before he starts drinking. His home country holds nothing for him (NZ) but he's dying the slow death of a thousand whiskey bottles here. He's just functional enough to survive and continue doing himself harm. Too mad to go crazy maybe.

[Taro Toporific]

Is it a common experience to know gaijins who go crazy here?

A while back, Eibsu had a couple homeless FGs full-blown raving on the streets for years. No visa. No money. But plenty of expired 7-11 bento to eat and half full cans of beer to drink. After walking by one very F'ed G with that special rasta funk for a couple weeks, I tried offering help. YIKES. The rasta-ojisan turned out to be an ex-coworker: definitely beyond help. F'ed "gaijins who go crazy" are the norm/majority here in the fetid bowels of Japan Inc. :P

[Big Booger]

Going nutts is what brought me here

[GomiGirl]

We're all a little crazy.. keeps us sane.

[AssKissinger]

Great topic. I don't think I ever met a 'lifer' who wasn't a bit off her or his rocker. The thought of going completely off the deepend is scary for sure. The path to madness here is usually paved with whiskey bottles. The rate of alcoholism among gaijin has gotta be through the roof. If anyone has some stats let me know. But it's incredible how much most people start drinking once they move to Japan. All that booze starts to pickle your noggin'. Combine that with the day to day stress of being an extreme minority, illiteracy for I'd guess around 95% of gaijin (myself included), and an untreated case of syphilis and presto you got yourself one cuckoo gaijin. BTW, Taro that's a scary story. For me personally I feel the mental illness creeping in on two fronts: alcoholism and insomnia; and boy do they go well together. Nothing like having a drink because you can't sleep turning into not being able to sleep because you drank too much. Toss in some addictive sleeping pills and let the brain damage begin.

[canman]

I feel those of us who live outside of Tokyo, or any of the large metropolises where there are a significant amount of foreingers suffer from, lonelyness. That may sound strange, but I feel even though I have a lovely wife, two kids, the chance to get together with someone from your same culture who you can just be yourself with, is really missing. Now that said, I do have a very good friend who is a year older than me, and comes from the US, I'm from Canada, and I think we do help keep each other sane. I also really use this board a lot, I don't wirite as much as others, but I love to read what you all have to say. I also have developed a few lets say email friends with members from this board which has also helped me out a lot.

[kamome]

You wanna' know how many insane gaijin there are in Japan? If the membership of the FG is any indication, there has to be at least a 50% incidence of insanity.

Interesting story Taro...the connection between homelessness and insanity is a scary point. Which comes first, the insanity or the homelessness?

[Taro Toporific]

We're all a little crazy.. keeps us sane.

Hey, until I met you, GC and your "crew", I only knew of three sane FG females over the past 20 yrs (out of hundreds I've met over the years).

[hidflect]

I've been to bars in LA, Oz, Malaysia, wherever, and DEFINITELY Japan's gaijins are more approachable and open minded when it comes to starting a conversation with a stranger. I put it down at first to being that people here are more open-minded and adventurous than "stay-in-home-country" types but now I think it's a relief mechanism from the silent desperation that creeps in from gradual estrangement. The old joke; "the husband is always the last to find out" might not just be a sexual quip, but be reflecting on the reality of being the solitary, major-domo figure in a household. And surely it's worse for singles.

[kamome]

...DEFINITELY Japan's gaijins are more approachable and open minded when it comes to starting a conversation with a stranger...I think it's a relief mechanism from the silent desperation that creeps in from gradual estrangement.

There is some of that. I also think that approachability comes from the feeling of being in the same boat with other FG's and the need to "circle the wagons" that comes with alienation.

That being said, I start off with a lot of skepticism when I meet another gaijin for the first time. Some people here are just off their rocker, and you have to protect yourself.

[Carnal Porridge]

I know your fictional "Hugh" (real name "Hugh"). He's not that crazed. Just seems a bit out of it much of the time. The fact that he drives a car surely suggests something...

[hidflect]

uh.. yeah - "Hugh" (real name Hugh) hereafter referred to as "Mr. X. Hugh" to preserve his anonimity does indeed drive a car. I know this only anecdotaly from the stories regaled to me about his subliminally suicidal driving style, hahaha.. but this is not meant to be a bagging of Mr.X.Hugh...
I tell you of another guy; "Nick" (now back in NZ). I was with him the moment he finally cracked. We were walking in Dotonbori (Osaka) and he had already lapsed into a continual swearing and twitching that was a little odd but not too abberant after a year of working in a factory boxing spare parts. Anyway, we walk past a large crowd of onlookers who are watching a mime/clown in full "Ponchinello" get-up performing his routine. So Nick says "Hey, a clown! Lets go watch!", perking up more considerably than I'd seen in months.

Now I don't know about you but clowns disturb me intensely. There's nothing jovial about these "things". In fact, some dude with a bizarre, unspeaking, freaky countenance gives me the willys. And I beg him "No, Nick. NOT the fcking Clown, man!" But Nick had frantically sold himself on watching this spectacle. With me tugging at his sleeve, he fights his way through to the middle of the pack (tall enough to stand out).

And the clown, who is busy acting something to the audience off stage-left suddenly freezes still. And with a slow menace rotates his unblinking gaze until he's staring in a pantomime springing-type crouch directly at Nick who suddenly feels the eyes of the world (or at least the whole audience) are on him. Must've been 150 people there. And that was it. Nick let out a yelp and bolted with the freaky, silent clown in hot pursuit. I never saw if the clown caught poor, old Nick coz I was the faster runner. Ponchinello must've chased us 2 blocks before we lost him and after that Nick's eyes turned bizarre and about a week later we had to "escort" him down to Kansai airport and send him back to the Long White Cloud. Totally mental after that.

[canman]

Just my opinion, but you've got to find some new friends. I've been in Japan 11 years and haven't met anyone who has acted like that.

[Taro Toporific]

If the membership of the FG is any indication, there has to be at least a 50% incidence of insanity.

At my office over 20 years, that figure was closer to 90% of FGs. According to the former director, the company had 1 year turnover rate of FGs almost all mostly for mental reasons between 1975 and 1985. In the 40-person office, at least 3 persons (presently all Japanese) are under HEAVY medication. Medical early retirement is a normal Japanese "out" from a the job rather than being fired.

[GomiGirl]

Methinks that either Mr X Hugh or hidflect (or both) do some serious drugs.

[Big Booger]

One of my good buds got to the point where he would try anything to see if it would rouse the attention of Japanese.

He would stand up on trains yelling, flipping people off, cursing, whatever he could do.. none of it worked.

In his last days in Japan, he got to where he would screw his girl anywhere.. in a parking lot, in a stair case, in an elevator, next to some old bums laying down in the street...

He is back in the good ol' US, and I think he has recovered.. but man alive he was getting to be totally bonkers. But I don't think it had gotten as far as to be considered a mental illness.

[AssKissinger]

In his last days in Japan, he got to where he would screw his girl anywhere.. in a parking lot, in a stair case, in an elevator, next to some old bums laying down in the street...

Nice looking chick? Did you ever see them going at it?

[hidflect]

re: Big Booger's post - Exactly like Mr. X. Hugh! Got busted for climbing a telegraph pole and mooning civilians until the fuzz came for him.

But I'M sticking to the sage advice of Motorhead:
"Have another stick of gum"
"Man, you look better already"...

[japslapper]

I am not sure if one becomes mad, here in Japan or if madness is a requirement to stay longerterm......

I remember on JET - the "normal" folks usually quit sooner than the weirdos.......(yes I am a weirdo )

Maybe if you are considered weird in your own country, Japan may be sort of a relief - I mean , the average Jap has no reverence point for "normal" with an FG......

[AssKissinger]

Maybe if you are considered weird in your own country, Japan may be sort of a relief - I mean , the average Jap has no reverence point for "normal" with an FG......

That's true but I think they can sense if you're a loon. I mean the secret is out with me at least.

[Big Booger]

In his last days in Japan, he got to where he would screw his girl anywhere.. in a parking lot, in a stair case, in an elevator, next to some old bums laying down in the street...

Nice looking chick? Did you ever see them going at it?

She was a looker.. that is for certain. A little too wild for my taste.. they visited many love hotels, candles were involved.. he taped them going at it.. he showed me a few keitai "Precious Moments"!

That was more than I needed to see. LOL

Most of the gaijin out in the boons though are not that crazy from what I can tell.. that or they hide it well.

I did meet this one serious looking charles manson impersonator.. but he was from Brazil. The guy wore these Ted Bundy black rimmed glasses, was over 6'5', and stared right through you. He seldom spoke and when he did he sounded like Lurch from the Addams Family.. it was spooky. I met him in a Japanese language class. Out of the blue one day, he reaches in his backpack.. and hands me a mikan, right in the middle of the lesson.. then he asks for my phone number.. I was freaking out.. So I gave him a fake one.

Consequently, I haven't been back to a J-language class since that day....

I have seen tons of insane Japanese people walking around.. but the gaijin who've gone off the deep end, are few and far between out in the docks.

[Taro Toporific]

[Carnal Porridge]

At my office over 20 years, that figure was closer to 90% of FGs[/quote]

Are you by any chance a head hunter?

[hidflect]

Are you by any chance a head hunter?

Hey hey hey! No need for dirty insults now! Madness is enough of a sickness to not have to throw in the "headhunter" slur.. hahaha

[Taro Toporific]

Are you by any chance a head hunter?

Hey hey hey! No need for dirty insults now! Madness is enough of a sickness to not have to throw in the "headhunter" slur.. hahaha

Whoa.

Wait a minute now. The infamous ShibuyaMe was a "headhunter". Hmmm.

[Taro Toporific]

Going nutts is what brought me here

If your crazy enough you can even have your own festival honoring your craziness like the original sicko FG, Lafcadio Hearn.

Matsue prepares for Lafcadio Hearn's centennial Kyodo - Friday Mar 05 5:55 AM SGT
The city of Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, which is often associated with novelist Lafcadio Hearn, is planning a number of events as the centennial of the author's death approaches in September.

[oyajikun]

It's not just gaijin that go bonkers here. They are just easier to spot and much more likely to come up and itroduce themelves with that most akward of handshakes that seems to last as long as the story they lay on you.

[Kurofune]

I've known a couple people who were a toy short of a happy meal.

I worked with a guy who walked around in jester hats and striped hose. He had been here for about 15 years teaching at an eikaiwa. I had to sit in on a disciplinary meeting with him, and watching him use his act to push the Japanese manager's buttons had me cracking up for a week.

Another guy had been here for several years, got into esoteric Buddhism, and considered himself a mage.

There was a grizzled military retiree near Yokota Air Base who used to walk or ride his bike around Fussa in a house dress.

I once saw an old guy in the Haagen Dazs in Shibuya who was either nuts or highly belligerent. He asked if the second floor was open, and when the clerk said no he threw his ice cream against the wall and in excellent Japanese accused her of being a racist and called her kuzu. He was as nasty as he seemed to be able to muster, but the young clerk handled it with complete dignity. Then again, you wouldn't have to work in that area very long before you'd have seen it all.

I wonder how many FGs have been knocked off their rocker by their J-wives. I'm going home in a few weeks to regain control of my marriage, because my wife would drive me crazy if we stayed here.

[hidflect]

Yeah, I've seen that jester guy, too! Just thought it was my addled imagination the first time. He used to hang around What The Dickens in Ebisu a lot. Or a couple of times in Mickey House in Takadanobaba - which has more nuts than a squirrel's hole. It was pretty incongruous to watch him since he acted pretty seriously most of the time...

[Kurofune]

Yeah, I've seen that jester guy, too! Just thought it was my addled imagination the first time. He used to hang around What The Dickens in Ebisu a lot. Or a couple of times in Mickey House in Takadanobaba - which has more nuts than a squirrel's hole. It was pretty incongruous to watch him since he acted pretty seriously most of the time...

That sounds like him. I think that was his stomping ground. He's a very intelligent guy, but he seems to enjoy rattling people's cages. I can't fault him, because cages here are so easily rattled and so badly in need of rattling. If a book were written about the history of the eikaiwa where he worked, he'd probably be a central character.