Jun
25

The Hottest Brand in Japan

Some people would call Japan and it’s people pretentious.

Take a walk through the streets of Tokyo’s Ginza district on any Sunday of the month, and you will have a fair idea of why they might think this way. And while there is much to be said on this statement alone, I will leave that for another post.

It is a well known fact that Japanese people love brand-names. A Japanese girl I met back in my university days owned a wallet that cost her over 150,000 yen (roughly $1,500 -$ 1750) and when I asked her how she got it, she told me that she worked an entire summer just for the sake of purchasing this single wallet…

And this love for brands doesn’t just come in the form of wallets, bags, and clothes… It reaches its way into everything from food and drinks, to schools, and even… people…

My name is X and I am a brand-name foreigner.

That’s right. Brand Name.
No, it’s not that I own many brands… in fact, I have never really been a fan of them. But rather, in this strange country known as “Japan”, I am a brand. And a seemingly fancy one at that!

I was inspired to pull this piece together after remembering a day many years ago when I was walking hand-in-hand with a Japanese girl in a countryside town near Kyushu. We walked past a group of girls who with eyes open wide, spit out a line that left me speechless:

“いいな～あたしも外人欲しい~！オシャレ！” (Aww~ I want a foreigner too! So fashionable!)

Me = Floored.

Now it is no secret that Japanese think it’s cool to speak English.
And it is no secret that Japanese think it’s cool to have foreign friends.
But it comes to a point where the line needs to be drawn.

If you read my post about finding your own in Japan, you will know how strongly I feel about re-calibrating our social filters in order to avoid unnecessary stresses. In my first few years in Japan, I met a great number of people. And while some turned out to be true friends, others seemed to have ulterior motives.

Years ago, I was (or at least thought I was) good friends with a Japanese man that we will call ‘Tak‘.
Tak was a pretty average Japanese guy aside from the fact that he spent his university days overseas in an English-speaking country. This is where we met.
When I met Tak, he went through truly great lengths to get to know me, and work his way into my social circle.
We spent several years together, studying, drinking, and generally just hanging out. Tak was even kind enough to show me around Tokyo and introduce me to a staggering number of his friends the first time I visited.
But when I moved to Tokyo, the nuance of our friendship seemed to shift.

When I arrived back in Japan, Tak insisted on getting together with me in the first week, and I happily obliged. He said that he wanted more than anything to introduce me to his new girlfriend, and as a long time friend, I looked forward to meeting her. But when he introduced me with the line, “This is X. He is one of my foreign friends!!”, to which she responded with “aww~ I wish I had foreign friends”, it set off a little light in my head and reminded me of a warning I once received from perhaps one of the most cynical Japanese friends I ever made. Her words rang in my ear,

You really shouldn’t trust Japanese people who try too hard to be your friend. To some Japanese people, foreigners are just like brands; Being seen with one is good for your image.

But after our dinner together, I felt re-assured that he was still the same great guy, and he just wanted to introduce me to his girl. That is, until the next time he invited me out…

We got together for dinner with one of his co-workers for dinner a couple weeks later. It was at this dinner, that I was introduced as one of his many ‘Gaijin’ friends. After which he proceeded to nearly ignore his co-worker and speak to me in English the entire night. The co-worker could not understand English.
When the co-worker finally commented on his own lack of English skill, without skipping a beat, Tak spit out the words, “X will teach you English! In fact, he’ll teach you for free!”

WHAT?! oh no no no…. I am not an English teacher.
… but that as well, is for another post…

Long story short, Tak and I exchanged  words. But in the end, he tried to pull the exact same routine 2 more times.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me three times, and you’re a dick.

Tak was a lesson learned. But in the end he only serves as an example of a single area of this issue…

One of the Japanese guys who works in my office has a girlfriend who is from Poland. He seems to genuinely care for her and always treats her with respect. But every single time he meets a new Japanese person in a social setting, like clockwork, he manages to work the line “my girlfriend is a foreigner” into the conversation.
It’s actually quite impressive.

Add to this, the number of times I have had a Japanese girlfriend use the words “Let’s go out somewhere today! I want to show you off!”, and you have somewhat of an epidemic….

Back in 2010 my best friend’s (Japanese) girlfriend pretty much summed it up:

Japanese people love something exotic. Have you seen all those strange flavors of Pepsi in the convenience stores? We live on an island. An island filled with Japanese people, ruled by Japanese culture, and share a similar Japanese way of thinking. So what could be more exotic to a Japanese person than someone/something not Japanese? Even now [in 2010], most Japanese people cannot speak English, and so even the thought of interacting with a foreigner is unfathomable to some people. Which means when a Japanese person looks at another Japanese person who is hanging out with a foreigner, they see someone doing the unimaginable. It’s like watching someone do magic!! And everyone loves magic tricks right? So, we love to be seen with foreigners. For some it is a novelty, and for some it becomes a lifestyle, but it is what it is and it’s probably not going to change anytime soon, so it’s better to just make the best of it.

And that is exactly what some people do…
I once lived with a guy from NZ who made his living off of capitalizing on this very point!

And honestly speaking, if this is the biggest of your problems while in Japan, I think it’s safe to say that you’re doing pretty good for yourself…

May
26

Finding Your Own in Japan

Culture Shock. Two words that mean so much to so many.

While to some people, culture shock in Japan may be as simple as having difficulty adjusting to Japanese food, it can be something much more serious for others. There are countless people who come to Japan and for some reason, become bitter, or shut off. They take shots at Japanese people and culture, and confine themselves to a very minimal social circle.

I’m going to go ahead and say that I am pretty much stating the obvious with this post, but it is an obvious point that is commonly and easily overlooked by so many people who come to Japan.

I truly believe that when living in Japan (especially a place like Tokyo) it is important more than ever, to surround yourself with people who match you. Not just fellow foreigners, but Japanese people who have similar mindsets, ideas, opinions, feelings, etc…
Obvious enough yet? Keep reading~

I have been living with and around Japanese people for over a decade now. And you don’t make the conscious choice to stick with something for over 10 years if you don’t like it.
And while my life right now is more or less exactly how I would like it to be, it wasn’t always this way…
The first while of my life in Japan was stressful. I went through a wide range of thoughts, feelings, and emotions and  spent years thinking,
- My personality didn’t match Japan or Japanese people
- My opinions were too strong (which still might be accurate haha)
- My ideas were unreasonable
- My words and actions were unacceptable
- My emotions were too rampant
- My clothing wasn’t fashionable enough
- My Japanese was first too casual, then too formal, then too feminine, then good to a point where people got irritated when I didn’t understand something they said
Etc….

Now, I have always been the type to voice what is on my mind and I have always enjoyed talking about Japan, life in Japan, and Japanese culture. And after some time and a large number of discussions with people ranging from tourists, to even psychologists here in Japan, things started to become more clear.

There is a phenomenon behind this that the majority of people don’t pick up on.
In the country we are raised in, we spend our lives filtering our social interactions. When we are in elementary school and high school, we often go through a stressful or awkward period where we are trying to find who we are. During this period, we interact with a wider range of people. Most of these people wont match us, but some do. And these few that do, often end up becoming our social circle.

From the time we develop our social circle, we (whether consciously or not) gain a more full understanding of the type of people who match us and the type that don’t. This understanding eventually becomes our social filter and we carry it with us wherever we go in life.
But this filter is not a broad one. For the most part, it covers personality types that we have grown to know and understand in a culture that we have an embedded understanding of, and overall comfort in.

So what does all this mean?

It means that when we come to a new country (like Japan) many people, if not all people, are essentially starting over.

Most people’s social filters will take time to adjust to a new culture and new set of personality types, and most people don’t even realize that this is what happens. Especially people who come to Japan at a later age, or people who truly believe that they have a complete understanding of Japanese people and Japanese culture, tend to suffer.

In our home country, with our social filter in place, we tend to interact the most with people who we feel will match us, and filter out the rest so effortlessly that they don’t have a chance to really enter our minds or our opinions. By the time we reach adulthood, most of us have gotten this down to an art form without even realizing it.
As we get older, our social filter gets a little lazy. We become less accepting and tend to generalize more (e.g. I get along well with foodies, but I don’t like bikers, etc…). And this is where the danger come in.
The majority of people move to Japan after reaching adulthood. At which point, not only is their social filter adjusted for life in Japan, but it’s also set up to generalize in very broad terms. Starting to see where the danger comes in?

And this can easily lead to a person thinking Japanese are rude, or I don’t get along with Japanese women/men, or even all Japanese people are racist.

Because of this, there are many people who either spend their time in Japan thinking that Japanese people in general aren’t for them, or even go so far as to give up on living in Japan and leave.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There are just as many people who manage to adjust and quickly find a group of friends/colleagues/comrades who match themselves, and never experience this side of culture shock and the stresses that come with it.

The important thing to take away from this is that Japan is really no different from any other country. Japanese people, just like the people of any other country in the world run a wide range of personality types.
Some of these people will match you in every way, but most won’t.
The most dangerous and unfortunate thing that you can do is generalize all Japanese people into one broad category.
In the end, you are only putting undue stress on yourself and potentially creating a tainted view for yourself.

This article, is one that I will continue to update and re-write but for now I will publish it as-is. And we would all love to hear your thoughts and comments, so please toss them in below.

 

Apr
28

Japanese People and Drunken Explosions

The title pretty much says it all. Japanese people… Tightly wound and constantly practicing enryo* and gamman* (the Japanese practices of ‘holding back’). But when the sake (or beer… or whiskey… or whatever the drink du-jour happens to be) gets flowing, it all comes undone.

I can’t count the number of times that I have seen the following happen:
End of year - bounenkai party season – all the office members make their way to an izakaya (Japanese bars) and the drinks start to flow. All fun and games at first, and then at some point in the evening a fight breaks out. There is yelling, there is screaming, and from time to time there is even a little bit of physical violence. Maybe someone gets a little too irritated with the new guy who wont shut up, or maybe Mr. Shy finally gets up the drunken nerve to tell the office cutie just what he thinks about her and her short skirts… But no matter what the situation, the example is illustrated.

And it doesn’t just stop there. Believe it or not, its not an uncommon occurrence for a Japanese man who lives away from his family to call in a drunken rage and proceed to yell at his wife blaming all his problems on her. Then, as if that isn’t quite enough, he’ll even go so far as to make her put the kids on the phone so he can share the brunt of his drunken decision with them!

And if the office and the home were where it stopped, you might not be reading this post.
But as it would seem, it seems to seep its way into the streets, parks, trains, and anywhere that these drunken time-bombs walk.

My story comes to you back from the year 2007… I was sitting on a bullet train on my way to Sendai Japan when a man who smelled of alcohol from 5 meters away decided to wobble his way over to the seat next to me and try and start up a conversation. To add to everything, he thought it would help his cause to speak English.

He slammed himself into the seat next to me and opened the conversation with “My daughter’s a b****” (which I would later find out he was mistaking for the word “whore”).  My jaw hit the floor and his story began.
The next 25+ minutes (which felt close to an hour) was filled with his attempt at telling a story in English…
What was the story about? While I could barely understand a word that came out of his mouth, his message was still crystal clear: He was not happy.

My tipping point in this particular conversation was when the man started going on and on about how his daughter liked gaijin and how gaijin were destroying this country, his daughter, and his life.
Honestly… what in the world could have possibly possessed this man to think that I would be the person to talk to about this?!?!
But I just kept telling myself, ‘He’s Drunk. He’s Drunk‘ figuring that it would come to a sleepy end soon enough. But then the bomb finally went off and he spit out the line that I suppose was inevitable,

“So go back your country foreigner”.

At this point, my face kinda looked like this –> (O.o)

I was tired, he was drunk, and honestly, I just wanted to enjoy my train ride.
So, I thanked him for the conversation and stood up.
And what does he do? He grabs my arm and pulls me back down into my seat. And to this, my reaction was less than passive.
I grabbed his hand by the wrist, looked him in the eye, and asked him quite sternly not to touch me again.
He paused for a moment.

And then… something mysterious happened…

He reached for his bag… and as if pulling a rabbit out of a hat, he pulls out a bottle of Japanese alcohol.
He holds it in front of me and with an almost mischievous grin on his face, says, “let’s drinking!”

What would you do?
I have never really been one to turn down interesting opportunities or situations in my life, and so I accepted.

As the time passed and the contents of the bottle depleted, the tension that once filled the air dissipated and the man who once seemed my enemy was now seeming much more like my friend.
We drank and talked (or at least tried to talk) for over a good hour. We showed pictures of our loved ones, talked about the good and bad of Japan, shared life stories and laughs, and even exchanged business cards. And in the end it came to a close just as I had originally predicted… He fell asleep. And that was it. I got off at my stop with another story in my pocket, and a difficulty walking a straight line.

He didn’t really want to fight. They very rarely do.

And so we wrap up yet another rant. Hopefully a little wiser, or at the very least, feeling slightly entertained.

After speaking to friends, colleagues, and random Japan-lovers about this, I found that many people have their own unique and interesting stories in this area, so I invite you to share!!

Apr
15

Pushy Japanese Oba-sans

We have all seen it at one point or another. You are getting on (or off) of a train, and a woman ranging from anywhere between her mid forty’s to her sixties, shoves by every single person just to get on the train and sit down.

These older women (or Oba-sans) can seem sweet and harmless, but it is there that the danger lies. Japanese people are known for being passive. They typically don’t show emotion, and they are more likely to walk away from any form of confrontation than to get into an argument, spat, or power struggle (especially in public).
These women have lived in this culture their entire lives and know this. And exploit it.
They are more than well aware that nobody is going to fight them. After all… it’s Japan… and … they’re women.

In fact, shortly after first arriving in Japan I was at a supermarket shopping for my dinner. I was young, working freelance, and pinching every penny that I could, so I always waited until around 7pm when the local supermarket discounted the meat! As I arrived in the meat section, I noticed that there was only one package of meat left and that it had been discounted by 50%!! I picked it up and went to put it in my shopping basket as I looked forward to the dinner that would follow, but magically, it never made it to the basket…

I got my first real taste of culture shock on this day as a Japanese woman well into her 40′s pulled the pack of meat right out from my hand and put it in her cart. Without so much as a look, she simply walked away. It was as if nothing happened…
Still in shock, I purchased the contents of my shopping basket and went home to eat a meat-less dinner.

But what happens when someone protests? What happens when someone finally stands up and says “Hey lady! I’m not gonna take that S#@&!” ? What happens when somebody shoves back??

Well… that’s where this post truly begins.
It all started with a seemingly quiet trip to Ikebukuro, a large and somewhat crowded shopping area in Tokyo, on a Saturday morning. I boarded the Yamanote line and managed to get myself a seat near the door. All was well and good until us Ikebukuro-b0und commuters went to get off the train….

As the doors opened, people waited to either side to allow for those exiting the train to do so with at least some ease. With the exception of just one woman. She was in her 50′s and had that crazy look in her eyes!

As people poured out of the train, she did everything she could to fight her way in. Looking like a salmon pushing its way upstream, she shoved past a man who was clearly having a bad day, and that’s when the unimaginable happened.
He shoved back.
It was a gentle shove, barely carrying the scent of frustration and even more barely noticeable to those not looking directly at the two, but what followed was something that will remain in my memory for years to come.

It started with a noise. A noise which at first resembled a grunt but quickly turned into a full and terrifying scream. Followed by what can only be described as nearly-profane language and a quick swing of her purse to the side of his head…

Everyone around stopped. Stunned. None of us could believe what just transpired. But more amazing was the fact that in the brief moment that it took us to recover, this woman had managed to get herself a seat. And not just any seat… my seat, right by the door. A cold shiver went down my spine and the train was gone. The moment had passed and would be remembered by all.

Now… It’s not every day that we get to see such incredible events in the gentle land of Japan, but its for exactly that reason that when they happen, they stand out.

The most dangerous part of it, is that you never know when its coming. Something as small as a sneeze could end up having you harassed by one of these Japanese middle-aged women, or even end up having you dragged to the police box (which if you read the post about what happened when I turned in a wallet, you will realize that as a foreigner, you don’t want to go to a police box for any reason other than perhaps asking directions)

After a quick search on youtube, I was able to find this video of middle-aged Japanese woman who was quite upset at an elderly woman simply for sneezing on her jacket:

I think one of the most common points that comes up when talking to Japanese friends about Japanese culture, is this point about pushy middle-aged Japanese women.
As I write this section, I am sitting in a JAL lounge in Narita Airport and right in front of me there is a Japanese woman in her early 60′s who just pushed her way to the front of the snack counter, and is currently filling her purse with “complimentary” snacks.

Now… I could spend another 500+ words talking about how this pattern could possibly relate to a Japanese female “mid-life crisis”, or how it could be a release or overcompensation for a lifetime of ‘gamman‘ (the Japanese practice of holding back or self control), or even how it could potentially be a back-lash from decades of taking crap…

I could get more into this… But I won’t!

Instead, I am going to open up the floor to all of you~
If you have a story or two, share them in the comments section below!!

Apr
02

The Japan Rants – Official Launch

Ok…

I would like to introduce The Japan Rants. I’m going to start by saying that I am a Japan lover. Always have been and always will be. My posts, are meant to be a source of entertainment, and perhaps give a person or two something to relate to. Japan is a country just like any other, and along with this there is good and bad. We can only enjoy our lives by accepting both of these in the place we choose to live. And the day that you find that you are unable to balance the good with the bad in Japan, is the day you should probably leave the country.

Some of my posts will be just for laughs, and some will be a little deeper.
As the site is just getting started, I welcome and encourage comments and feedback of any kind~

So without further adieu, I would like to introduce you to my first 5 posts:

1. Japanese Gold Diggers
The title might lead you to think its about women… but its not!

2. Japanese People and Spatial Awareness
This post gets into the hidden danger of Walking around Tokyo and the complete and utter lack/disregard Japanese people in this city tend to have for the people and objects around them.

3. The Little Pervert
I had to stop this post part-way through… A story of a 14 year old boy who tried to sexually harass a girl on the train right in front of my very eyes. The real kicker: The train wasn’t even crowded…

4. N0 ID? No Problem! Its Japan!
Have you ever been ID’d in Japan? If you have, chances are they were just messing with ya~

5. Why I No Longer Help People In Tokyo
 A little story about one of the events that lead me to believe its better just to stay out of things while in Tokyo.
I have spent weeks thinking over when and how to release the site. My biggest concern has been that I constantly have new examples, anecdotes, and  media that I would love to add.
So, I will protect myself right from the start by saying: There Will Be Updates!

Each of the original 5 posts are starting points. And I can only hope that you stick around and grow with us~

I encourage anyone and everyone to subscribe, and if you’re not already, check out my Twitter @TheJapanRants

 

Apr
02

No ID? No Problem! It’s Japan!

For those of you living in Japan, allow me to ask you a question…

When was the last time you were ID’d for something?
And when I ask this, I mean being ID’d for alcohol or tobacco, not being ID’d for just being foreign (^_-) 

In a land where alcohol and cigarettes are served up in vending machine format (mind you the cigarette machines have been ID’ing people lately…), it’s not entirely rare to see a group of 17-19 year-olds sitting in an Izakaya (Japanese-style… bar/restaurant), yelling out ‘Kanpai!” (Cheers!) as they raise their beer glasses in the air. [Just a note... The Japanese legal age of drinking is 20]

And while this isn’t something that particularly bugs me, I couldn’t help but be taken back last night when I went to the local, Konbini (Convenience Store) to grab some alcoholic beverages and was asked by the store clerk (who was about 15) to touch the ‘Yes’ button on a digital screen confirming that I am old enough to drink.
And that was it.
The screen asked me “Are you old enough to drink?”,  I push the button for “Yes”, and I’m on my way.
And while there is slim chance that I look younger than 20 years old, I still cant help but feel that the whole setup nothing more than an exercise in futility…

Now, if I were to think of this from the perspective of an 18-year-old university student living on my own in a city that prompts people to write “ranting” blogs, I would think this to be a wonderful feature of the city and culture that I live in. But sadly, not everyone is going to see it that way..

Now… I have additional anecdotes, and photos that I WILL be adding within the next week or so… But, were off to a start at least!
And so once again I open up the floor to you. What are your thoughts?

Apr
02

The Little Pervert

It was that hour of the day where the sun is painting everything in the city a beautiful shade of orange as I boarded the train. All of the seats were taken, but the train wasn’t what I would call crowded.  I stood in the middle of the area where the doors were, and put in my headphones. I had just finished an interview with a fairly famous musician about an hour before, and was looking forward to getting home.
Standing 2 or 3 steps away from me to my right was a girl of about 23 in a short skirt and tall boots. Deadly combo. She had a sweet face, but I guessed she probably worked as a hostess somewhere. I shifted my focus off of her and onto the recording of my interview.

At the next station, a young boy of about 14 years old wearing a school uniform boarded the train.
And this… is where things started.

As the kid boarded the train, he stood behind her at a distance that couldn’t have been more than a few centimeters. This stood out. The train wasn’t all that crowded and he was in plain view of everyone. And everyone noticed. But this is Japan, which means that just as quickly as they noticed, they switched to pretending that they saw nothing.
You know what they say… Ignorance is bliss.
But the girl noticed and she took about 2 steps closer to the door. It would seem that she couldn’t maintain the same blissful state as the other passengers. And if this had been any normal day, or any normal 14 year old Japanese kid, the story might have stopped there.
But instead, the young guy waited about 10 seconds and reached up to grab the handle near the do0r. As he did this he ever-so-slyly moved himself back into position, almost pressed up against this girl.
Much to my surprise, she did nothing. For almost a full minute she remained exactly where she was with this little Japanese boy pressed up against her. But as we arrived at the next station, she took this as an opportunity to maneuver herself into the corner space created by the intersection of the doors and the seats.
As soon as the door closed, he moved in again. Just as sly as last time. But this time, pressed right up against her.

Now… From the moment this started, everyone on the train noticed. And yet nobody reacted. Nobody said a thing, and nobody did a thing.  In fact, I started to wonder if I was going crazy or completely misreading the situation. In fact the little f***er even had the balls to not only make, but hold eye contact with me several times in the reflection of the glass.  His face and eyes carrying an expression that would imply that nothing out of the ordinary was going on.
I was confused.
Was I really seeing this?! Should I say something?! Do something?!

And that’s when the situation changed a little. He started to bend his knees and actually rub up against her, and this was when I caught a glimpse of her face. It was no longer sweet, but instead she looked furious, and was pouring sweat.

Now, I have a standing promise with myself to not get involved in other peoples issues here in Japan. In Japan (especially in Tokyo) making an attempt to help someone out, can often turn around on you and make for a very long and stressful day. (See “Why I No Longer Help People in Tokyo“). But this was a little more than I was willing to take.

I lightly grabbed him by his back pack and only meant to pull him backwards, but when I noticed, I had partially lifted him off the ground to the point where his toes were barely touching. I thought to myself that I should stop, but for some reason I just didn’t care in that moment. There I stood in front of everybody holding this boy who now looked like a cat being held by the scruff of its neck, and I just couldn’t care less that they were all staring. I remember myself thinking “A girl is getting felt up on the train, and you all do nothing, but NOW you stare?!?“.

With him still in the air, I leaned forward and whispered in his ear. I gave him 2 options, neither one particularly attractive, but the later of the 2 at least allowed him to escape without any real damage being done.
He froze and said nothing. People were still staring and I was becoming increasingly more aware of my situation and the number of people watching me.
And then, he finally gave in (and I let go). He went with the second option (which was a very public-style apology). Right there in front of everyone in the train, he dropped down on his hands and knees and apologized to the girl (which in retrospect was not as good of an idea as I had originally hoped considering this only served to embarrass her further >_<). After his apology, he remained in his bow for what felt like an eternity (but in reality was probably less than 15 seconds)

As the doors opened at the next station, the young boy got off and disappeared at a speed that I can only describe as impressive considering his size.
He was gone, but I was still stuck on the train with this girl and all the witnesses. I really should have gotten off with him. Hindsight is always 20/20…

As the train finally arrived at its last stop the girl turned to me over her shoulder and took a moment to thank me. We are friends to this day, and it turns out that I was right about her job (^_-). (I still think her choice of outfit that day was… well… problematic to say the least. But that’s for another post).

At the end of this I was left feeling shocked, flabbergasted, and having a lot less faith in humans than I did when I left home that day (which is pretty bad considering that those numbers are already running pretty low…).
I found myself truly concerned with this country and what it’s coming to.
Honestly, what does it say when a kid of that age is already taking part in these type of activities?!

This incident was actually one of the main moments that inspired this website.
I wonder what that little 14 year old is doing now… On second thought, probably better not to think about it.

Apr
02

Japanese People and Spatial Awareness

I’ll start by admitting that the name for this post technically should read “Japanese People and Their Complete and Absolute Lack of Spatial Awareness”.
And if Japan (especially Tokyo) were a place filled with wide open spaces and plenty of room to frolic, I probably wouldn’t be writing this post. Yet alas, it is not.
And by this point, you probably already have a fairly good idea of what this post is about, so I’ll jump right into it…

Two Words: Excuse Me (or sumimasen in Japanese … technically.. one word in this case).
The words you will very rarely hear and soon give up on saying when walking the streets, train stations, hallways, or even bathrooms of Japan’s ever-so-crowded Tokyo.

I challenge you. Each and every one of you here in the city of Tokyo to go out for a day and take a count at the number of people who bump into you, or would bump into you if you didn’t make a point of getting out of their way.
Heck, if you want a real spatial awareness in Japan challenge, try running around the imperial palace in Tokyo!
Or at the very least, take some time to sit down almost anywhere in the core of the city and watch the number of people who bump into each other.

And while on one hand, Japanese people’s complete and utter lack of spatial awareness seems to fade into the background and become something that you may not even take not of, on the other hand it can really get on your nerves after a while. When I first came to Japan, I thought for sure that this was something that I was either imagining or something that I would get used to with time. Most Japanese people don’t even seem to notice.

I have seen cameras and cellphones broken, elderly people knocked down, and children hit in the face on more occasions that I can count. It’s downright dangerous.
In fact the other day I was talking to one of my Japanese friends, and while talking to me he backed right into some poor old woman and nearly knocked her over.

The problem is so tied into the Japanese lifestyle (at least in Tokyo), that major train lines such as Tokyo Metro, even put up posters reminding people to be a little more careful.

Tokyo Metro Poster - Japanese Spacial Awareness

Tokyo Metro Poster - Japanese Spatial Awareness

This particular poster (above), comes from a fairly common issue of people with rolling bags. If you have ever been to Tokyo station, you will be able to relate to this pretty easily.

One of my personal favorite examples of this lack of spatial awareness has always been the people who stand beside the seats on the train. Whether it be their arm, their jacket, their back, or simply their a$$, they are usually hitting the person sitting on the corner seat, in the head with something…

On account of all of this, trains can be a pretty unsafe place if you really think about it.

More often than not I stop to think about how difficult, not to mention outright dangerous it must be for pregnant women to simply go out or even get on a train…

I originally believed that living in a place surrounded with people at all times would heighten one’s spatial awareness and strengthen the use of their peripheral vision and the senses that they use to monitor their surroundings… But Nope.

Now, I’m not going to go into this big long post about cultural and psychological elements that factor into this (although I do possess both the necessary knowledge and linguistic capabilities to do so…), but rather open up the floor to you, the readers to give me your thoughts, opinions and experiences on this.

Or… I’ll go ahead and do an..

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UPDATE!:
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Ok, so I decided to do what I should have done in the first place, and actually looked online for peoples thoughts on this. And of course, with absolute minimal searching I manage to find several forums with people posting and ranting about just this issue~
You can find a few of them here:
http://www.outpostnine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6782
http://forum.gaijinpot.com/showthread.php?64631-Utter-lack-of-spatial-awareness-in-Japanese-people

In addition to this, I was able to find a video that got me laughing pretty good.
It’s worth watching clear through till the end (the last 2 are probably the best)

But the video really got me thinking…

A video like this shows a perfect and quite interesting point: There IS a lighter side to everything that bothers us. (^-^)

In this case, the lighter side is that people can be used to conduct a modern-day pavlov’s dog experiment with surprisingly definitive results!

But this video also brings up a point that I have thought to be true for quite some time. It’s not so much that Japanese people have a lack of spatial awareness as it is that Japanese people (primarily in Tokyo) just don’t care anymore.

Have you ever tried to apologize every time you bump into someone, step on someones foot, lightly knock someones bag, etc…? When I first came to Japan, I did! For about a week…
And by the end of that week, I started to think of how incredibly senseless it was to apologize for everything.
In anticipation of updating this post, I searched through my things this morning and pulled out my old journal…
In the last 3 days of my apologetic week, I had roughly kept track of how many times I apologized per day… and it was… well, a lot.
And this got me to thinking,
Let’s say on average, each person in Tokyo, bumps into people or makes accidental physical contact a minimum of 5-10 times a day.
And now, let’s imagine that each and every one of these people apologizes for this each and every time…
Can you imagine how noisy this would get?! Or how tired you would get of hearing and making apologies?!?

And so… we give up. We stop apologizing.
In fact, most of us gaijin gave up on this in the first month (if not the first week).
But I think that the difference lies in one point: Most of us… still care.
Most foreigners I know, will go out of their way to make sure that they don’t bump into people, or take up too much space on a train seat.
But you get people who have lived in Tokyo since birth, and bumping into people becomes a part of daily life. They become desensitized, and bumping becomes much more than just bumping…
In fact, a few of the other gaijin I have spoken to, say that they make a very clear effort not to bump into anyone, simply so they don’t end up in a koban with a Japanese person claiming the foreigner hurt them..

I could honestly sit here and keep writing about this for pages and pages, but more than anything, I would love to get your thoughts on this. So please take the time to drop in a comment below!

 

Apr
02

Japanese Gold Diggers

So, as much as you would expect this to be about Japanese women (and for that matter… men), who survive by living of the money of a rich boyfriend, husband, or even papa… Its not!
Rather, this is purely and simply about Japanese men and a certain tendency that they have.

I was sitting in a Japanese culture discussion group, and as we were bringing up topics that we wanted to discuss or that we had questions on, one of the younger members piped up with, “Why do Japanese men walk around blatantly picking their nose in public?! Don’t they realize that people can see them?”. At this point, the majority of the members in the room got that, So… I’m not the only one who has noticed this?! look on their faces.

And as it turns out, almost every single member has seen it. Whether it be a 48-year-old business man rushing his way through Tokyo station, or a 23-year-old winner chilling on the subway lacking awareness of his surroundings, they are out there, in abundance.

In fact, after a quick search, I found this video which pretty much illustrates the point…

Even managed to find a forum talking about it!! Click Here

Now, if you have spent any amount of time in Tokyo, chances are that you have seen this. Multiple times.
And while some people will argue that living in an overly crowded city in Japan can leave a person feeling like nobody is ever looking at them because there are so many other people around, it doesn’t change the reality.

I even took some time to ask some of my Japanese friends what they think of these Japanese nose pickers, and the topic of public nose picking in Japan.
I was somewhat surprised to find out that at least 50% of both the Japanese men and Japanese women that I asked said that it was neither uncommon or shocking to them to see someone picking their nose in public…
In fact, some even brought up other points such as teeth cleaning, eye-gunk picking, and open genital scratching that they saw just as often if not more often than nose picking…

So as the discussion group got going on this topic, my mind was on this blog and all of you out there. And so that brings us once again to the what are your thoughts? section. (and I thought I might toss in another poll~ )

Feb
20

Hello from Japan

Hello to all of you in and outside of the land of Japan.

Allow me to start by making one thing clear. I Love Japan. I always have and I always will.
But like anyone who has spent any amount of time in Japan will tell you, there are things that bug, bother, annoy, shock, disturb, and enrage those who hold this country dear to their hearts (this includes Japanese and non-Japanese alike).

Like many, I have been in love with this land of mystery and beauty for pretty much as long as I can remember, and not for a single day has that changed.

But…
From time to time… stuff… well.. bugs me.

And so I introduce you to The Japan Rants.

I cant promise they will always be pretty, and I cant promise you will like or agree with every post.
But I can promise they will be honest, often controversial, and full of heart!

Chances are, as time goes by, posts will be edited, updated, changed, and injected with additional anecdotes, photos, and videos.

So sit back, grab a snack and join the fun.

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