Whoa...I'm in Japan?

Funny Stories on Being a FOB in Japan

What Do Japanese Girls Got that I Don’t Got? Part 2

Tokyo Where to Go: Spa LaQua

Quirky Japan: The Delightful and Disturbing

Published on July 4, 2012

This may come as a shock to some of you, (if your idea of shock is being completely aware of something and not surprised at all) but in my youth before I came to Japan, I had a great love for what I considered to be “all things Japanese”, which was pretty much kanji, Final Fantasy, anime, geisha and Tokyo street fashion. I was what they call a full blown Japanophile — in love with the happy and colourful fantasy land Japan represented to me, so much more exotic and inviting than my boring North American life. In my first year of university I heard about the JET program and I was ecstatic. What!? I thought. There’s a way I can actually live in this paradise?? I was determined to be on the first thing smoking to Japan as soon as I had the required degree in my hand.

But that didn’t happen. Student loans intervened and I got an office job. As I got older my idealized view of Japan focused to something more realistic, and it would be three more years before I finally decided to move to Tokyo, but for very different reasons than I first intended. With age came wisdom and I knew that if I built Japan up into some kind of impossible wonderland it could only disappoint me. So I researched, reading blogs about other people who were already out here, and came here with what I feel was a balanced view of this unique country.

However there was one perception of Japan that never left, and after over a year and a half here it’s actually strengthened: This place is quirky. I mean, there is some stuff going on here that just makes me scratch my head like…”huh?” Some of it is charming, and brings up those old feelings of Japanophileness, but some of it is just like whoa…what? OK, no…no! You know? Let me give you some examples.

Delightful — Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Videos

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is something like the Lady Gaga of Japan, if your brain can even comprehend such craziness. Take Lady Gaga, make her a Japanese teenager and double her wackiness and you have Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. Her videos are cute, creative, colourful, surreal and always have some talented dancers.

Disturbing — AKB48 Videos

AKB48 is unfortunately Japan’s latest pop sensation. They are a bunch of young girls — 48 of them I would say if I had to guess, which I do — though only a few appear over and over again to represent the group. Their fan base is primarily preteens and old men. Their most popular video is centred around the ground-breaking theme of spying on a group of girls at slumber party, beginning with watching one as she undresses. The video features lingerie, allusions to porn and orgies, and them doing their own craptacular dances. My adorable little 9 year old students sing along to this video and know all the dance moves. I shudder at the thought that 9 year old girls in Japan look up to this.

Delightful: Hilarious Pranks on TV

The creativity and/or cruelty that go into Japanese pranks make for some of the most hilarious viewing in the world, and they’re the only thing on Japanese TV that I can understand like. Something about watching people scream and run in fear from one of those creepy Japanese women ghosts – you know like the one from The Ring – sets me off.

But the Japanese get crazy with it!

Watch this prank at a ski resort where guys think they’re in for a relaxing naked sit-down in a comfy chair, only to have the chair flip up and dump them through the wall, outside in the snow…naked. How cruel. How unusual. How hilarious.

Disturbing: No Foreigners Allowed

The lack of sensitivity in the above situation also has a dark (darker?) side. It causes Japan, in general, to lag behind in the political-correctness parade, and because of that there are various “no foreigner” establishments sprinkled throughout the country. I haven’t encountered this issue yet, but it’s frustrating to know there are hot springs or bars or anything else where I can’t go, simply because I’m foreign, and not many will have your back if you try to fight it. It’s eerily reminiscent of the “whites only” bathrooms or restaurants or whatever else that existed in the West not so long ago.

Delightful: Perfect Train Service

http://locohama.tumblr.com/

This is not just some stereotype floating around. The trains here are on time down to the minute. And everyone is so spoiled by the excellent train service that if the train is even 1 minute late we’re tapping our feet and rolling our eyes while we look at the time on our cell phones, the profuse apologies coming from the loud speakers doing nothing to appease us. You can, and I have, set your watch by the trains.

Disturbing: Decoy Porn Newspapers on the train

Every now and then as I’m riding my perfectly on-time train I see a man reading a newspaper and I think, “What an upstanding citizen, catching up on current events.” I might even be nosy and casually turn my head to the side, to see what he’s reading, (never mind that I can barely read Japanese). But sometimes I sincerely wish I had minded my own damn business.

Waaaaitaminute…this is not a regular newspaper aaarrrgh!!

Scattered throughout the unintelligible (to me anyway) Kanji are ads with women, limbs akimbo and as naked as the day they auditioned to be porn stars. Why, my dear man, would you want to read such literature on a crowded train? So you can get a hard-on and everyone can see you’re a perv? Actually, that’s probably exactly why.

So you see? Something about this place is just…special. Sometimes it’s SPECIAL! And sometimes it’s “special”, if yuhknowwhatimean. But take it or leave it, Japan will probably always be one of the most head-scratchingly quirky places on the planet.

No Comments

Golden Week 2012: Kickin’ it in Kyoto

Published on June 5, 2012

I know, I know, it’s been like a month since I went to Kyoto and I’m now posting this, but here’s the thing…I think I did Kyoto wrong. Yeah, I visited temples, petted the deer in Nara, drank from a magic waterfall that’s supposed to give me luck in love (and I think it worked ), but maybe I built Kyoto up too much in my head. Maybe it was the constant gloominess and rain while I was there, or maybe I was just all templed out, but though I had some novel experiences, Kyoto wasn’t *ALL* I expected. I think I need to go back…when it’s sunny. I will not give up on you Kyoto!

However there was one outstanding stand out: I got to see a Maiko Show. I couldn’t understand a thing but I was still enthralled, enchanted enticed and other words that start with “E”. At first there was some kind of Romeo and Juliet-ish star-crossed lovers’ story, then individual and group Maiko dances. I am a fan of the arts and this show was very artistic. Yep. I loved the dancing, the shamisen music, the singing, the costumes, all of it. I couldn’t take any pictures though. I really, really, wanted to just sneak and do it anyway but I had this horrible vision of the noise or flash stopping the whole show. Imagine: everyone goes silent — the actresses, the narrator, the audience, and turns to look at me in pure disgust while I’m holding up my iPhone. I wouldn’t even be able to play the gaijin card ‘cause there were signs in English everywhere that said no video or photography…or else you will be subjected to a humiliation so thorough it will drive you mad. You will never be the same. At least I think that’s what they said, I can’t remember exactly.

I did of course have lots of fun taking pictures elsewhere, as always. Would you like to see?

Kinkakji, the "golden temple"

The View from Kiyomizu temple

Giant Buddhas at Todaiji Temple in Nara

Capsule Ryokan

Above is my little capsule at the hostel I stayed it. I really liked it. See, I am the opposite of claustrophobic, so I loved having my own little screened off space including my own T.V. that had Fox network. I watched House. You heard me, I went to Kyoto to watch House.

4 Comments

Tsuki Magazine Takes You Inside Japan

Published on May 11, 2012

It’s got stunning photography capturing the quiet beauty of everyday life in Japan. It’s got thought-provoking interviews on race relations and self-publishing. It’s got engrossing Japan-themed fiction and nonfiction including my very first published story!

If you’re really interested in life in Japan, and not just the tourist traps they show you in Lonely Planet, this is a magazine you need to read. Click here to read a free sample. I think I can safely say after reading the debut issue that it was a huge success. A big thank you goes to Caroline Josephine, the mastermind behind it all. I’m ecstatic to be included in the magazine along with my fellow bloggers and photographers Loco of Loco in Yokohama, Joanne Yu, Our Man in Abiko, J.C Greenway of Ten Minutes Hate and Made in DNA. I hope to see and be included in many more issues to come.

You can follow Tsuki Magazine on Twitter and Facebook.

Below is a sample from my story. Head over to Tsuki Magazine to read the rest. Get your copy here!

__________________________________________________________________________________

An officer and an interpreter waited on Anna with typical Japanese courtesy, standing silently but alert at the side of her hospital bed. The officer had a pen poised over a notebook. The interpreter stared at her with his bushy, dark eyebrows raised in expectation. Anna stared dumbly at a limp curtain (that should have been white but wasn’t quite), bunched up at the corner of the empty hospital bed across from hers as she tried to shake free the details of the night before. They’d settled like potatoes in the sluggish stew of her brain. She could hear nurses talking in Japanese in the hallway outside her room, and though she usually tuned out at the sound of a language she could barely understand, today their chatter distracted her. The gash in her arm stung and itched, tight and uncomfortable under the gauze with the stitches pulling it closed. She knew there would be a bad scar, and hoped it wouldn’t screw up her chances of getting modeling gigs in the future.

Focus, Anna focus. She closed her eyes and breathed deep, smelling the harsh cleanliness of antiseptic chemicals. She started her recollection with what she remembered most clearly: The blood, running down her arm first in one thin stream, then a little red river, breaking off into branches when it overflowed. It was like looking at one of those artsy pictures where everything is in black in white, except one thing that’s a really bright colour – a red balloon, a yellow scarf, something like that. No, she didn’t scream. She couldn’t feel the knife slicing into her. She only knew she’d been badly cut because she could see it, and the eruption of blood splitting into three streams snaking down her arm, dripping off her elbow onto the road. She was too mesmerized to scream. Yeah, she probably was in shock. It hurt like a bitch after though.

The officer and interpreter chatted for a few seconds in fast Japanese, until finally the interpreter turned his dark eyes on her and asked, “Please tell it from the beginning.”

* * *

It had been a hot night. Though the sun was asleep it was still unreasonably sticky out, and Anna knew there were embarrassing sweat stains on the back of her blouse. She was making the long, boring walk from the station to her apartment. She remembered being impressed that she was halfway home and hadn’t had to dodge anyone coming at her on a bicycle yet, or stop at the side of one of Tokyo’s narrow roads for a car to roll by. No looking at her shoes or the flowers in the front yard of a house or something, to avoid eye contact with the driver. Then, she’d stupidly thought it was good luck.

She was closing in on the intersection where she would turn for the home stretch to her place, when she saw the first person she’d seen on the back roads all night – which was strange to be honest, ‘cause there are a ton of apartments and houses in the area. She couldn’t tell if it were a man or a woman. All she could make out was that whoever it was wore one of those hospital masks people here strap onto their faces when they’re sick, or is it trying not to get sick? Anyway, it stood out, bright white against the person’s black coat, black hair and the blackness of the night. Anna had wondered how on Earth this person could stand wearing that long, dark coat in the heat. Yes, she could respect the dedication to fashion, but it was one of those nights where it’s so humid the air is tangible, and you just can’t seem to get enough oxygen no matter how deep you breathe.

Anna turned left at the intersection and the other person turned as well, and ended up walking behind her. Soon, Anna noticed the coat-wearer was practically on her heels. She could hear breathing – slow loud inhales and exhales like someone meditating, or maybe trying to supress their rage. She sped up, thinking maybe the person was agitated because she was in their way or something, even though they were the only people on the road and he or she could have easily gone around Anna. However, she shrugged it off as a “Japanese” thing, like passing someone on the road might come off as rude, but when she began to walk faster the person matched her pace. That was when Anna realized she was nervous.

Why is this dude right under me like this? She had decided it was a man. Oh God, maybe he’s some kind of crazy person who hates foreigners, or – shit – is he gonna try to rape me or something? Dammit where is everyone?

She remembered hearing that rapists look for women who seem like “victims”, and that they don’t want to risk being identified. Maybe it was unwise, but she turned and faced the strange person.

3 Comments

Golden Week 2012: What Happened in Hiroshima?

Published on May 9, 2012

Oh, the stories I have to tell about Hiroshima!

I flew instead of taking the bullet train because as crazy as it sounds it was cheaper. I booked the flight like three months in advance so I got huge discount. I was met at the airport by a friend who lives in Hiroshima and her ma and sister, and just like that we were off.

We went to the famous Hiroshima peace memorial park and museum first. I was warned that it would be depressing, but it was heartbreaking. Near the end of the museum tour are images of the damage done by the A-bomb: people with burns and melted skin and the sickness that came after. But the most shocking thing to me was a series of letters from the mayor of Hiroshima to the president of the United States asking them to stop nuclear testing. There were letters as recent as January 2012. The whole experience was pretty sobering. Depressing yes, but something that I felt I shouldn’t overlook…not that I plan to launch any nuclear missiles anytime soon but who knows, it may one day be an issue I, or anyone who has visited the museum needs to vote on, so I think seeing the complete devastation and decimation caused by nuclear warfare is important.

But I also wanted to have some fun in Hiroshima. The A-bomb’s not all the place is famous for. Some of you may know I was dying to go there to see this magnificence up close and personal. See how majestic it is? How beautiful? How red? The next day, when I woke up at my friend’s place and we piled into the car with her ma to catch the ferry to Miyajima, I was a little disappointed because it was cloudy and rainy. Damn, this crappy lighting will mess up all my pictures. I thought. But the mountaintops were covered in this swirling, silvery fog, and it gave the area a kind of a cool, mysterious atmosphere. I kept pointing it out and my friend and her ma kept laughing at my city-girl enthusiasm. There’re no misty mountaintops in Tokyo.

Cool.

We got to the ferry terminal and her ma paid for all our tickets including mine, even though I protested. We got on the ferry and it slowly puttered to Miyajima. The scenery was beautiful, foggy green mountains all round us, the rolling see underneath us, and then I saw it – the torii! And it looked…like…THIS!

Somebody up there hates me

What the… the rain wasn’t enough? Murphy, you and that law of yours got some ‘splainin to do. I felt my lower lip tremble a little while my friend and her ma tried to soothe me with soft, regretful zannens (that’s too bad). But I’m tough, and it’ll take more than a torii under renovation to break me.

Itsukushima shrine must be beautiful in good weather, because even with the grayness and dampness it was still gorgeous. Finally, some good pictures!

The best part of the trip up to Miyajima was getting to devour some Hiroshima okonomiyaki. The place we went to was small, family run, and the okonomiyaki was goooood. There was one old woman behind the counter who was just staring at me, mesmerized by my use of chopsticks. It was great entertainment for her and I could just hear the commentary in her head:

Oh it looks like she’s struggling on that one piece, is she gonna do it? Oh the cheese is really gooey maybe she won’t be able to cut through it. Is she…yes…she did it! Sugoooi!

Oishikatta

We went back to the house shortly after that, where I took the elevator (!) up to my swanky room and passed out from the sneezing I had been doing all day. Did I forget to mention I was having an extreme hay fever attack as well?

After my nap my friend’s dad came home and I was finally able to meet him. He took us all out to dinner at a really fancy, traditional Japanese restaurant. As we sat in our private room with soft shamisen music playing over the speakers I thought wow, all this for little old me?

The first course was an elaborately decorated sashimi plate. Here look at it, tell me that’s not some elaborate decoration.

Yep there’s a lobster tail and some seashells on there, even a fresh crab. So fresh that as the waitress was bringing the plate in the crab rolled off and tried to make a break for it. My feet went up off the floor and under me so fast. My friend’s ma squealed even as she picked the crab up by one of its legs and it struggled weakly. The waitress was all apologizing and bowing, but by the way she speedily took the crab away, I think it must happen a lot. I think he was chopped up into a soup we had later. Anyway, after that with every course I sent a silent prayer – please, nothing alive.

See, this family has been very kind to be, taking me into their home and such. I couldn’t insult them by refusing to eat something “yucky” at dinner. Even though I’ve been in Japan for over a year I haven’t been that adventurous with food, mostly only eating the basics like sushi, sashimi and curry. But no matter what kind of “Fear Factor” like weirdness they brought out, (you remember that show? Where people had to eat bull testicles and living bugs and alladat?) I was determined to at least try to get it down. Luckily not only was everything dead, but for the most part delicious. The only think I didn’t care for was sea urchin. Imagine what it might be like to eat a pair of musty, sweaty old socks, and you’re close to what it tastes like.

My favourite course was the Hiroshima beef above. It was so soft and juicy and…and beefy…*drool*. I would go back to Hiroshima just for that.

It came out sizzling on the plate, like high-class korean BBQ.

Despite the rain and the renovations, I had a great time in Hiroshima, but even Hiroshima beef couldn’t keep me away from the wonders of Kyoto.

To be continued…

6 Comments

Going Loco in Chinatown

Published on April 30, 2012

It’s finally, FINALLY golden week! And I’m planning to have a golden time. In a few hours I’ll be in Hiroshima, then famous Kyoto.

The week’s gotten off to a fabulous start. Yesterday I took a tour of Yokohama Chinatown with none other than the toast of the town, Loco in Yokohama.

We started off walking around, taking in the sights and atmosphere. At night the place is all lit up with orange lanterns strung everywhere. It’s like another, well, another country out there. Everywhere are charismatic Chinese smiling and gesturing and cajoling, on the hustle trying to get people into their stores or restaurants. It’s not like everywhere else where people are content to leave you alone when they realize you don’t want whatever they’re trying to sell you. I couldn’t understand everything they said, but I understood the tone:

Just try it! You’ll like it! We’ve got exactly what you could ever want or need. We promise!

We were trying to find a place to eat ’cause I was staarrving. People kept trying to sell us chestnuts for some reason. One wanted to get rid of his so bad he smoothly dumped one bag, then another into a third bag as he explained he’d give us a 3 for 1 special. But Loco put it perfectly when he said as we walked away,

“It tastes like shit, so why would I want three bags of shit?”

Another guy pleaded with us after we wouldn’t eat the chestnuts he thrust in our face with a desperate, “Onegai yo!” (Come on! Please!).

I decided that since we were in Chinatown, I wanted Peking duck, ’cause I’d never tried it before. We let a seductive picture of Peking duck draw us into one of the restaurants, and I was excited…until the duck actually came: four thin strips of duck skin with some meat hanging on. The rest of the food was even worse, but at least the beer was good, and the company. I need to make my way back to Chinatown, because even though that place sucked, I just know there’s some family run joint somewhere that’s the bomb.

Finally we hung out at Yamashita Park for a while. It was a nice warm night and there were a lot of people there. The glowing Minatomirai skyline was our backdrop, party ships all decked out in lights floated on the dark water. It was a really great night!

Keep a look out for more golden week updates.

2 Comments

Another Reason I’m Still Here: Hanami!

Published on April 9, 2012

Cherry Blossoms Blue Sky
“So hey, Amanda wanna hit up the convenience store, buy lots of snacks and booze and take them to the park, and then sit under Sakura trees, soaking up the afternoon soon and getting buzzed?”

“…yes!!”

I love hanami — the Japanese tradition of picnicking in the park while the sakura trees are blooming. This year I had an unforgettable time playing drinking games, talking and just generally shooting the shit with friends. This is the stuff lifelong memories are made of, and will probably be one of my fondest memories of my time in Japan when I leave. The afternoon started with a scenic hike through the park to get to our spot, and of course I was snapping pictures like a pro the whole way.

Boom!

We found a nice clear spot, set up a tarp and got our drank on.

Setting Up

I don’t think I played the drinking game right though, because I was just drinking constantly, whether it was a penalty or not. It was the perfect day for a hanami. The weather was warm, the sky a benevolent blue, and sunlight and warmth just infused us all with this good feeling, you know? Or was that the booze? Nah, it was definitely at least partly due to the atmosphere. We drank and played and talked as the afternoon sun set behind us, and as the last few straggling rays of sunlight leaked over the horizon we packed up to head to yasukuni shrine. On the way out I got a beautiful shot of sakura trees with the river as a backdrop.

That's Nice

In front of yasukuni shrine there were a lot of street vendors and crowds of people, and I felt this wonderful mood of festivity. The torii and entrance to the shrine stood at the end of the street like some kind of indulgent parent, watching children playing. I ate what was probably the most delicious yakitori I’ve had since I moved to Japan, and the night ended at an izakaya in Shinjuku.

Yasukuni Shrine

It’s times like this I really love my life in Tokyo.

4 Comments

Hip Hop in Japan

Published on March 22, 2012

Hip Hop in Japan

Last week I had a chance to get up close and personal with the hip hop scene in Japan at hip hop artist Kojoe’s album preview party. Even though I had to get there and leave ridiculously early (11:30pm, the curse of working Sundays) the party was still bumpin’. I met new and interesting people, got buzzed off DJ Daisha “Dai*light” Hunter’s signature drink — the Oh Happy Dai (what I gotta do to get a drink named after me???) and just got to chill and enjoy hip hop.

Kojoe’s album, Mixed Identities 2.0 comes out April 11th, and if the first single “Get Famous” is anything to go by, it’s gonna be hot! Kojoe raps in a mix of both English and Japanese and…OK I couldn’t understand the Japanese parts, but whatever I could still get down. The beat is tight, it’s one of those songs that makes you wanna nod your head, put your hands in the air, maybe wave em’ like ya just don’t care. Kojoe’s credits include working with Wu-Tang Clan’s Raekwon, and Talib Kweli. Watch out for this one, he’s doing big things for Japan’s hip hop scene.

Now, fuzzy iPhone pictures:

Look at that crowd, and it's not even 11:00 yet!

Kojoe working the crowd

Previewing the video

And one of my favourite songs of all time:

4 Comments

A Year After the Quake: Why Am I Still in Japan?

Published on March 11, 2012

Canada is like a part of Mother Nature that doesn’t see too much action. It’s like her back, or the underside of her forearm — nothing much going on there. When I lived in Canada I used to wonder about people who lived in other parts of the world more prone to natural disasters. What were they thinking? I wondered about the people who had stayed to watch their homes and their lives devastated by hurricane Katrina.

And now I find myself comfortably settled in Mother Nature’s stomach, where things are constantly churning and rearranging, in a country smack dab on what has been dubbed “the ring of fire”, for all the volcanic and seismic activity.

Yeah, life’s a trip.

This time last year, I had been living in Japan for about two months. I was having the time of my life, making new friends and having all kinds of new experiences. I still barely knew anything about Japan though. In fact when the quake hit I didn’t even know it was that bad. Whoa…Japan has some crazy earthquakes I thought. I even tried to make it in to work. Then I got a message on Facebook from my sister — thank God the internet was still up — saying they had heard about a bad earthquake in Japan, and begging me to let the family know ASAP that I was OK. Things only got worse from there. I learned about the tsunami. I remember seeing one particularly chilling video of black water slowly coming for people who were running for higher ground. The video pulled away as the water reached them. I started to cry as it sunk in that the video wasn’t special effects from some natural disaster movie like The Day After Tomorrow or 2012.

And news started to get out about the malfunction at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant.

The days after the quake were the most stressful, the only time where I’ve ever had legitimate cause to fear for my life. You might think I’m over exaggerating, but ex-Prime Minister Kan has since come out and said that the government was expecting the worst from the Fukushima Daiichi crisis, but couldn’t say anything without creating panic. There was already a mass exodus as people migrated from Tokyo to the south – people knew something bad was going down. At the time I lived in a guest house with three Japanese roommates, one from Australia and one from Canada. My Japanese roommates all left to stay with family elsewhere. One even wanted us to come with her, but we refused. I can’t speak for my roommates, but at the time I didn’t want to believe it was that bad. I convinced myself she was being too cautious. And sadly the focus on the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was taking attention from the people suffering in the aftermath of the Tsunami.

I didn’t get much sleep in the week after the quake. Every night, when I wasn’t shaken awake by an aftershock, I woke up periodically to check twitter for news on the status of the plant, and every day it was worse. Another hydrogen explosion, soaring temperatures, another reactor critical. There was this aura of doom in Tokyo, like the calm before the storm. No one was working and the normally crowded streets and trains were disturbingly empty. My guest house was too quiet with half the residents gone. My parents were calling every day in a panic, governments were advising their citizens to get the hell out of Japan before it was too late, and the Japanese government was ominously silent other than to issue a 30km evacuation zone around the plant, which the U.S government expanded to 50km. I think it was around the 4th hydrogen explosion that one of my roommates and I packed up everything valuable — in case we couldn’t come back to Tokyo — and caught the shinkansen to Osaka to meet up with the “too cautious” roommate who was staying with her family there. We had to stand in line for about an hour and a half to get a ticket, and there were no free seats. All the hostels in Osaka were booked and we were lucky to find a place that had recently opened. After four more days in Osaka, and four more days of pleading and guilt from my family, I went back to Canada.

But after a week, in the midst of the ongoing Fukushima Daiichi crisis, I came back to Tokyo. And despite occasional aftershocks, worries about radiation in the food and water supply, and warnings of another big quake coming any day now, I continue to live in Tokyo. Am I nuts? This isn’t my country. It’s a beautiful country with lots to do and see, but I don’t have family here, or national pride. I’m way worse than those people in New Orleans who felt they couldn’t leave. Why am I theoretically risking my life to stay here? What is about the quirky country that draws me, despite the danger?

Maybe it’s because I feel guilty. Aside from some donations and attending a couple charity events I haven’t done much to help those whose lives were turned upside-down by the tsunami. I thought about volunteering, but felt with my poor Japanese skill I’d just get in the way, and I had to be honest with myself about my motive. I decided I would just be volunteering to say I had, and that they were better off without me. Japan would benefit much more from my working and paying taxes and contributing to their economy, so here I am.

Maybe it’s because this time in Japan is the first time I’ve lived independently. For three years after I graduated I kept living with my parents, while I frantically paid off my student loans — like hell I was gonna give the government $10,000 in interest. I guess in my head Japan and independence are mutually exclusive. I’ve built a life here, with a job and friends and a cute apartment, and I don’t want to give it up.

Maybe it’s the thrill keeping me here. Perhaps some stupid part of me feels it’s somehow brave, loyal or tough of me to stay here, laughing in the face of danger. Though I left for a week, I came back so I don’t think I can really be called a ‘flyjin” — that derogatory term for foreigners, not Japanese, who had the audacity to worry about their safety and leave Japan. Though I know it’s ridiculous, I think there is a part of me that feels I’m somehow special, or more courageous than the people who left. And I do get an ego boost when my students seem impressed that I’m still around.

Or maybe I feel I’m just not done with Japan yet. I want to become proficient in Japanese. I want to visit Hiroshima and Kyoto this golden week. I want to see a Maiko. I want to lie on a beach in Okinawa. I still haven’t worked up the courage to go to an onsen. I want to eat more okonomiyaki and I want to wear a yukata to a festival. This place is so chock full of culture that even after a year I still have much more to see and do. There’s really no other place quite like Japan. I also want to visit other countries in Asia, like Cambodia and Indonesia, and I feel like if I go back to Canada, it’s unlikely I’ll make it all the way out here again.

So now I have a first-hand understanding of why someone would knowingly put themselves in harm’s way to maintain a life they’ve built and love. To the other expats here, especially those in the Kanto area, why do you continue to live in Japan?

16 Comments

Is Japan a Small Step Away from Becoming a Utopia?

Published on February 29, 2012

This post is inspired by a lesson I had last week. I was explaining the phrase “peer pressure” to my students. One of my students said that she experiences peer pressure when she goes out to a cafe with her girlfriends.

“I don’t want to eat cake, but if my friends all get some, I have to get some too.”

I was a little taken aback, I didn’t quite understand.

“Do you mean it makes you want to eat cake too? That would be my problem, but that’s not quite peer pressure.”

“No, no, if I don’t get cake they will all think, ‘why doesn’t she get cake too?’ It’s like…sisterhood.”

“…ooooh so you mean you all have to get fat together, lol”

“Haha yes, something like that…”

At first, this conversation made me depressed. I immediately thought of that Japanese proverb people like to quote: the nail that sticks up will be hammered back down. I though of the salary man who just wants to go home, but has to sit through drinks with coworkers after work for fear of not being a team player. Jesus, I thought people don’t even have the social freedom to choose what they want to eat in this country?

But, that’s not entirely true. I don’t want to position Japan as a place where there is zero individuality, and people can’t think for themselves. I had to remind myself the “just be yourself” message we get in after school specials all the time in the West just isn’t pushed here. Instead, it seems more important for people to work as a unit. So instead I focused on the word she used: Sisterhood. Camaraderie. Fellowship. These are good things, are they not? The very core of the concept of world peace. Everyone doing everything together, supporting one another – it sounds pretty good to me. Majority rules and no trouble makers allowed. Perhaps it’s this attitude that is responsible for the aura of safety here in Japan. I’m not as worried about having things stolen here, or leaving my door unlocked, or walking around late at night. There is something to learn here. I sometimes think about what the world could accomplish if we set our collective will in action. Look at the amazing contributions that have sprung from the minds of just a few people: the airplane, the internet and the mapping of our solar system to name a few. If we could all get our act together the results would be nothing short of magical.

And yet…

I caught the other half of her sentence, after the ellipses. Of course, this is simply a translation of the unformed vibrations hanging in the air above her head at the time, but they felt something like, “but sometimes I just don’t want to eat any #&^% cake!”

NOT sisterhood: For one, where are the travelling pants?

This sadly led me to believe that this is not true “sisterhood” after all. When consensus comes at the cost of free will, I call that peer pressure, and pressure is usually not a good thing. That kind of consensus seems to me to be on the other end of the spectrum: the consensus that is the mother of apathy. After all, why try when you’ll simply be bowled over in favour of the majority? I hear this attitude in the Japanese word shogannai (roughly translated, “it can’t be helped”). I know this attitude is by no means exclusive to Japan, but back where I come from, peer pressure is…almost something to be ashamed of — it doesn’t mesh with the “be yourself” indoctrination. Here in Japan though, peer pressure, it seems to me, is just a fact of life.

Nevertheless, I think Japan is on to something. It’s like I can see the ingredients for a delicious utopia cake, where everyone’s got each other’s back, but it’s like the recipe is wrong and the cake comes out too sweet.

Maybe that’s why sometimes my student just doesn’t want any.

12 Comments

Gearing up for Golden Week

Published on February 14, 2012

So last year I ended up farting around for Golden Week for some reason. I think I went out a couple nights, and made a half-assed trip to Ueno zoo because it was free on children’s day. I went to see the pandas, but I didn’t get to see the pandas because the wait was something ridiculous like four hours. So I had to make due with the other, less pandarific animals like monkeys and tigers and that, the ones I coulda seen in a box of animal crackers

I digress.

This year I refuse to be so lame. I’ve planned and booked a stupendous Golden Week Extravaganza to Hiroshima and Kyoto — two of the places I’ve really wanted to go since moving here. I’ll finally get to knock number two off my list of the 7 things I wanted to do in Japan.