This is the seventh Letter to Nana in the series in which I write from my school in Iwata and walk about 15 minutes to the station to go home for the evening. I discuss my dad visiting, how it’s odd living again with my father, and how much fun and frustrating it is to travel with him.
There is some talk about the awkwardness that seems to surround a foreigner living in Japan. This talk may or may not be interesting or insightful or important. I don’t feel as though it’s offencive, but it may be, although I’m not sure how. What I do know is that, for whatever reason, it’s awkward to talk about. This is really why I am bringing it up, so that I can explore why it is so awkward.
Although this has been discussed to death, and shown in film and television, It’s another thing entirely to experience first hand. I hope I’m making at least some kind of clear case here.
I love the way your thought processes go as you walk along.
I have felt the exact same way in Japan, Korea, or wherever I go. I like to feel superior because I know that language or whatever and I like to set myself apart from other foreigners when I am in those places. Not sure why, but your idea about wanting to be unique seems a fair point.
Your recent journal entry about the Gaijin card is also something I can understand. I think it’s a great card to be able to play. It helped me in Korea to leave work earlier than Koreans and spend more time with my then girlfriend and friends.
Japanese, like Koreans (sorry to keep relating things to Korea, but it’s what I know best. I just realised I haven’t been in Japan since 1997…) are a fairly homogeneous bunch and so foreigners, especially those of a different colour, stick out like sore thumbs. The very word Gaijin means ‘outside person’ and applies to those who are not Japanese and can never be so. Just like your friend who has lived in Japan for 15 years. His very appearance means he will always be a Gaijin. I don’t think it’s an active attempt on the part of the Japanese to be racist in our sense of the word, but just a part of their culture and the way it has always been. It is possibly less so in Tokyo (haven’t been there since 1991…) and more so in Hamamastu (never been there…). Korea is even more difficult as there is the whole Confucian tradition which sets rules for these kinds of interractions.
An interesting thing I have noticed in New Zealand over the past 10 years (I imagine it is similar in BC, particularly Vancouver) is that New Zealand Chinese people who have roots here stretching back to the 19th century are being lumped in with new immigrants from China or Korea or wherever because of the way they look. NZ Chinese have pretty much formed their own social groups away from both sides, which was never the case when I was a kid, all those years ago…
One more thing. I have to correct your history :) The first trading port in Japan for Westerners was Dejima in Nagasaki. It was for the sole use of first; the Portuguese and then; the Dutch. Perry opened up Shimoda for the US via his ‘gunboat diplomacy’ which I believe is the origin to the wider use of the phrase…
Oh yes. I forgot to say. I’m with you, I’ll take history over scenic beauty any day of the year!