My thoughts of Japan throughout the past year of living here; the good, the bad, the strange and ugly.
Japan is a land of extremes: from
the obsessive otakus to the overly
frilly maid café dresses, the made-up high school girls with their Vuitton bags
and the cloistered misanthropes that won’t leave their rooms, the drunken salarymen, and the punk as fxxk motorcycle
gangs riding around at 2 in the morning, their engines revving loudly. This is Japan. You want
to live here? Get used to it.
As an eikawa, or private English conversation school, teacher of English
I am trying to deal with these extremes on a daily basis. As a foreign
non-Asian-looking woman my particular niche here is the teacher-hostess girl:
depending on the person staring at me I am either an English teacher – thus,
someone to freely practice English with – or a hostess – someone to go drinking
with, practice English, and later on a little unf-unf for his efforts. Yes, his.
I am not approached by women in Japan
on the street. Ever. But men, oooh men, they like us exotic creatures. Since
we are not Japanese we don’t fall under the Japanese politeness rule and as
such anything goes when talking to a foreign woman. Keep that in mind and be
careful! I do want to add in when I say "men" I mean middle-aged and older businessmen. You'll never get approached by a cute, young guy near your age unless it's a host boy trying to practice his English to drag you to his host club... That, sadly, doesn't happen so often.
Oh, you’re a man you say? And you
have blonde hair?! Well, that’s a completely different story. You’ll have a
great time here. Probably. You will be approached by many Japanese women with
various agendas ranging from sex, boyfriend, marriage, cute little
half-Japanese babies, and the coveted visa to a western country – it doesn’t
even matter where: England, Australia, America,
Canada.
Wherever. It’s all good.
Not that I’m trying to sound bitter
about my experiences here. I have had some amazing experiences here as well.
I’ve gone to the Seijin no hi (coming
of age day here in Japan for those turning 20 in their kimono finery) at the Heian
Jingu shrine, Gion Matsuri in Kyoto, Tenjin
Matsuri in Osaka, seen maiko in Kyoto's Pontocho district walk past me, been to
various h. Naoto gothic clothing events, tried hakata
ramen actually in Hakata, bought
electronics in Akihabara, puddle-hopped
over to Taipei for a weekend jaunt, and – most importantly – went to both the X
Japan Tokyo Dome live and the hide Memorial Summit concerts. Hell, this past
winter I headed to Bangkok and Hong
Kong for some R&R. That doesn’t sound bad at all! Add in all the random shows, cultural events, and just plain weirdness and you know you'll have some amazing experiences here! Next Sunday I'll be heading to a bunraku performance, or puppet theatre. Sounds rather intriguing, I think, and not something I can catch back home.
With all of that said, if you are
seriously thinking about moving to Japan make sure that this is the path you
want to take. Japan
is a fun place but it truly is a land of extremes. As a foreigner you will
always be an outsider in Japan.
This can be awesome – sometimes a Japanese person wants to be nice and they’ll
buy you a free bottle of tea or an ice cream bar – or horrible – such as having
drunken guys try to follow you home wanting sex or yelling at you to go home,
you dirty foreigner! It’s a hard country to get comfortable in. Japan doesn’t
welcome foreigners with open arms; it’s more of a give and take policy
consisting of a chain of compromises. Think hard if you can adjust to such a completely
different country knowing that you will be living here for the next X months or
years. You’ll have amazingly awesome days and super killer depressing days.
That is the life of Japan.
It is one hell of a rollercoaster ride!
Are you ready for it?
