Oddbean

Being white in rural Japan gets me a lot of stares. Mostly from kids and old people. Kids almost always say “Herro” because that’s how they pronounce it. I ignore them. I used to reply but then it got tiring. Sometimes I’ll reply with a full sentence about something totally random and they look extremely puzzled 😂 I always get some fun out of that. I used to be weirded out a little but now I don’t pay any attention. I speak English and I’m loud and I don’t care. Sometimes the old people even run up to me while pointing at me and saying “foreigner”. I can’t tell if they are excited or disgusted 😂 I just pretend like they don’t exist and pay no attention. They usually walk away awkwardly. Then there’s the kid who whispers about me to their parent. And the parent hushes them and explains it’s not polite to talk about people who are right there. I nod in agreement 😂. Occasionally I’ll say hello in Japanese and they get quiet because they realize I know what they’re saying 🤣 The kids are the best. I pick up my kid from school and large groups of kids stare at me and talk about me. They marvel at how my son and I have conversations in English. Occasionally some run up and practice their English on me. There are also adults who speak some English. But that’s about it. They can say a sentence but it’s impossible to hold a conversation with them. I usually reply with a word or two and end it there. Even if they try to carry on, the moment I open my mouth to form a full sentence they are extremely lost and confused. The joys of rural Japan 😆

When I went to Japan for nostrasia last year it was a horribly lonely place; luckily the conference was full of friendly people, but outside it I felt extremely isolated. I had meaningful interactions with only 2 Japanese people while I was there. There felt like a deep isolation due to language barrier, culture, and race. I'm curious about your take on this. I'm from rural America where you can talk to almost anyone and it's not weird.

I don’t have any Japanese friends so I don’t know. I’ve heard from other people’s experiences that this is what they’ve felt too. As an outsider you are never treated the same. But even as a Japanese person you have the public you and the real you. Most of the time you are interacting with people’s public persona and never get to know the real them. Or so they say …

Do you speak Japanese? If not, how did you expect to have a meaningful interaction with Japanese people? The people you're talking about in rural America speak the same language as you. I've gone many places in Japan and had meaningful interactions. There's definitely more of a divide between strangers and acquaintances than western countries, but I find rural Japan to be far more welcoming. I met a guy that's about 70 the other day while he was out working in his garden and we've chatted a few times over the past week because we're both out early in the morning. He gave me some eggplant and said he'd help me plant some strawberries if I want. We talked about his former job and we talked about our families. I get what you're talking about - Japan can definitely feel lonely. The big cities are probably quite bad in that regard. But it can be a warm and welcoming country as well.

I was hoping to meet some English speakers. There were much less English speakers there than I thought there would be. But one person and I shared a very nice conversation via Google translate over coffee. That was pretty cool

I don't pay it much attention anymore. The people in my neighborhood know me. The kids at school and their parents don't seem to treat us any differently, but it's a very small school. If we're out somewhere else, kids do stare and some want to come and say hello or whatever - their minds are probably just trying to come to grips with seeing someone non-Japanese in real life. I felt way more stared at when I lived here 15 years ago, but perhaps I just don't care anymore? When I'm walking my dog at 6 in the morning and a car goes by I sometimes wonder if their brains are exploding. What is a random white dude doing walking a dog in the middle-of-nowhere Japan? One of the absolute best parts of Japan is people just leave you the fuck alone to live your life. No one is offering you unsolicited advice. Instead they give you vegetables 😄

Interesting to hear these reactions still happen. My dad would spend a couple of months a year in rural Japan in the 1960s and 70s, setting up factories. He thought in many cases he was the first white man they had seen, and sometimes children would run away in fear at the unexpected sight of a strange giant walking along a lane. Back then, after losing so much weight on the first trip, he would take blocks of cheese and some tinned western food to sustain him. Now, even living outside London in the UK, there are stores with a choice of natto varieties. Nostrasia was my first trip to Japan, and I only visited cities, so a very different experience - I absolutely loved the place, the people and the culture, and plan to come back to see more of the country. I wish I had visited while my dad was still alive. We still have a number of handmade gifts from people my dad worked with all those years ago.

Tell me James, any chance of the postal service resistance holding any water here for Taiwanese knockoffs to have a taken on romantics going, genius to bait noodle fights going for pancake a la Beijing? Does this really matter to me or just them royal competence of liars demise? Think they’ll just get the warrior princess joke? Who’s a yellow noodle soup having something to lose hare, Mr Chango?! https://music.apple.com/de/album/a-boy-named-sue/411976932?i=411977066&l=en-GB

In-group preference is the natural human condition. There are important evolutionary reasons for it. Try not to judge them too harshly. You are after all a guest in their "home" and probably an uninvited guest in the eyes of many if not most.

Amazing experience. I lived in Singapore for 4.5 years, and had many friends who were married to Asian wives. Couldn't speak to korean mother in law eg Or family holidays in Japan with Japanese family who can't speak English etc My old boss in particular, used to joke how his 2 sons spoke better Japanese than him by the time they were 4 years old Yet even with the language barrier, they were all so happy, and made it work Amazing part of the world to spend time