My buddy Greg suggested that sharing my daily frustrations with living in Japan for four years would be a good thing.
I doubt that, but I'll do it just in case.
To be very honest, this is going to have a lot of anger and obscenity in it.
On the other hand, if you dont live in Japan, even for a while, you might never see japan as a real place. Remember that what I say is only my opinion. I am just one man.
There are things I love about Japan. The Bujinkan, the tattooing guys, some other people. I am married to a Japanese girl and her family is great. There IS goodness here. I guess what I want to say is that it aint all good, contrary to a large and well funded public image campaign by the Japanese government over the last 30 years.
Here we go:
You have probably been taught over and over again about the many rules one should follow to avoid insulting or offending or being impolite to the Japanese people. You probably assumed that they did the same thing concerning you.
You were wrong. They don't care if they offend you, they only care about whether or not you offend them.
Ever since the September 11th Terror attack tapes were played on TV here, over and over again, the Japanese people have learned two phrases of English, which they try to use whenever possible, despite the fact that they have no idea what they mean.
"Oh my God." and "Holy Shit."
I've had Japanese English teachers, 40 plus years of age, say these phrases in class and then throw their heads back in light hearted laughter. If I had known how to say "you disgust me" in Japanese, I would have.
The best I could do was "yuwanai de" (don't say that ) in an angry voice.
Believe you motherf***in me, if I started cracking jokes about Hiroshima, they'd all get serious and explain to me how I shouldn't joke about something like that, as though I were some moron, because they would never be smart enough to realize I was being sarcastic and facetious.
How can I be so sure? Because a middle aged Japanese teacher once explained to me how an atomic bomb was once dropped on a city in Japan.
(no joke)
I said " I know, WE dropped it...Pearl harbor...remember?" She said "wakainaio" (I dont know what you're talking about) I'm sure she didnt.
One day, at the post office, during the post 9-11 days, the lady behind the window pointed at a box of presents I was mailing home to my family in ******. She said "white powder?" Ha ha ha ha ha. She and her fellow postal employees had a nice chuckle. I do believe making a joke about terrorist acts in a federal building is a federal offense these days, aint it? Well not in Japan, where everything that happens OUTSIDE of Japan is one big f***ing joke.
They love to talk about the 24.
What is the 24 you may ask.
The 24 people who died on 9-11 in New York.
The 24 JAPANESE people who died.
They couldnt tell you how many total humans died, they have no idea...
(And they dont care. Racism here is so deep and so wide they dont even recognize it as such. They all KNOW they are special, better than all other people on the planet Earth...)
The Japanese just dont get out enough. They need about a million Puerto Ricans to immigrate and take over all of their baseball teams. Please dont take that as racism. They just dont have any significant minorities. The Koreans and Chinese make up about 1%
English.
I am an English teacher.
I teach people who dont want to learn English.
The teachers dont want their kids to speak it. The parents dont want their kids to speak it. Truly, I am a joke.
Remember how in middle school you never gave the answer when the teacher asked, even though you knew it, because you didnt want the other kids to think you were a nerd? Dude and Dudettes, that is Japan, adult Japanese society, in a nutshell.
Culture is an awesome force, ladies and gentleman. It is more than just colored glasses that give you a tinted view. IT is also a pair of hearing aids that changes meaning and blocks out certain words.
To the Japanese, whom I like to compare to American teenagers (14-15 years old), their self identity and self definition is a major concern. If they dont have themselves defined in some way, every day, well they just have to commit suicide.
They will eat nauseating food they dont like because they believe that Japanese people eat it and they are Japanese so they have to eat it. You wouldnt believe how many times I have heard Japanese people say "doing this (whatever) makes me feel so Japanese."
The hard part about this for me is, part of the "recipe for a japanese person" is that they dont speak english. Im not joking. My wife is Japanese, but she speaks English fluently. Except in public. On the train. When she is surrounded by Japanese people who can hear her, she suddenly couldnt speak English to save her own life.
The English teachers I work with KNOW the correct pronunciation for english words, but will talk to each other in the classroom with that same old japanese pidgin pronunciation. They do it in front of their students too. "Eh, bee, she" (A,B,C) The message is loud and clear " English is only for foreigners, we dont expect you to actually speak it"
So, I have students who have studied english for ten years or more, and they cant put together basic sentences. They cant even recite the alphabet correctly. After ten years of English....
Now, get one of them young, say 5 years old, and take them to America for a year and the will come back to Japan FLUENT in English. However, they will be stared at by every Japanese person within earshot if they speak english once they come back to Japan. Some of these "Returnee" kids, (They have to have labels of course) never get back into the Japanese group identity and have to move back to the country they stayed in. Dark sheep. their families dont speak of them very often.
This happens more than you would think. People go to America on vacation and never come back. OR they come back, pack their chit and go for good.
There is a large, well-funded and never ending anti-American propaganda campaign on TV here in Japan.
The negativity runs 24-7.
the rumor mill runs round the clock with new os the latest horros of American life.
"Did you hear the news?" "American police will shoot you if you put your hands in your jacket pocket when you are being arrested"
No joke. My wife told me that one...
They are worried now about being shot when they are being arrested. It tells you something about their minds doesnt it?
They aren't worried about criminals hurting them, they are worried about getting hurt BEING criminals...
I had one of my students tell me that it was rude to speak english in japan. She was 17 years old. That was only less disturbing than their teacher who told me " People who look different tend to be bad" (He was explaining to me why Japanese high schools have, in their school dress code, a requirement that all students must have black hair.)
I'm not joking.
I guess all of this only points to the higher mystery of Budo. How could something so wonderful be found here?. Hatsumi Sensei is a rare person, but amongst the average Japanese, he is a God-like person. That doesnt mean that the Japanese like or respect Hatsumi Sensei. 99.99% of Sokes students are WHITE.
A Japanese reporter asked Soke why that was. Soke told him " Maybe they are better at spotting quality"
You bet your ass.
Why? How? What happened to this country that the land of ninjas is so far removed from what it once was, that now the Japanese people will be happy when all the ninjas die so they can put up a pachinko parlor where the old ninja dojo once stood?
Perhaps, that's why they were ninjas. They were the rare, brilliant individuals who were smarter than the masses of Japanese humanity.
The cultural treasures of Japan are like rats off a sinking ship. The new masters are mostly gaijin. I'm talking here, with personal knowledge, of many Japanese traditional arts including music...
Its almost enough to make me want to cry for the Japanese people.
I appreciate all the replies I recieved on this blog. I do not know if the author of the actual content will read them or not.
My own experience is merely that of a brief visitor. I have always felt like a ghost, sorta like a spirit from the movie "Spirited Away". I am neither young or attractive enough to be of interest to Japanese girls, or unusual enough to be of any interest to any other Japanese. I'm largely ignored.
Last year I left my last day as a free day which was a mistake as I ended up just being lonely for my family. I did get to see "Howl's Moving Castle" in Japanese though.
I had the worse experience - albeit funny. I went, by myself, to Starbucks. I got totally wired on espresso and then wanted to *talk* with no one in site who could speak English. Try getting talkitive in a non-English country.
Rev. Greg
Posted by: Rev. Greg at November 22, 2005 06:17 PM"To be very honest, this is going to have a lot of anger and obscenity in it."
Boy, you were not joking were you. I am glad you managed to get that poison out of your system.
Now I have a few points to make back to you.
I have lived here for 20 years, still, do, and don`t intend leaving. While I have seen and experienced all you wrote about, I never let it build up in me to such an extent that it turned into a such poisonous experience. I have seen an awful lot of good stuff that I would never have seen in my own country. I have also seen a lot of Americans and Europeans (its true that Asian do not count to the average Japanese) act just as insensitive and just as proud and just as idiotic and just as patriotic of their own cultures. Yes, the Japanese have a chip on their collective shoulder, I am sure your culture does not, neh) but they also have an incredibly large inferiority complex that has been inbred from their Grand parents on down through their own parents. 90% of the time, the very same Japanese person you are raging against for his English has not got a clue as to what he is saying. He is being hip, or perish the thought, being international. He could not be sarcastic to save his own skin, he does not even know what the word means. I am half Irish and half British, you want to talk about being sarcastic, man I was born to that calling, it come naturally to me. I am still married to a wonderful Japanese lady for 15 glorious years, do you honestly think my wife, who is fluent in English both in Public and Private, would still be happy with me if she understood sarcasm. I don`t think so. Your story, while an accurate account of the idiots over here, does nothing to reflection or praise the good Japanese people. Are you trying to tell me that in 4 years you did not meet ANY nice people. I really hope that this exercise of your is not taken to be indicative of all Japanese, that would be the highest of slanders IMHO.
I do feel for you, that you had such a bad experience, I have many friend now left who felt the same. Maybe it takes more than 4 years in any country to really understand it, it has taken me 20 years to get this far and I still commit mental mass murder every time I have to catch a train into Tokyo. I cringe at the prospects of what lies ahead.
I have many cherished friends here in Tokyo, I have even turned many of them on to Buddhism and they practice to this day. And boy have I met the fools that you talk about. Every day of my life I meet them. From the Garbage lady at the end of the road who insists on checking my garbage bags to make sure the Gaijin is following the rules because gaijins could never under stand the complexity of the wonderful Japanese garbage disposal system, to the idiot drunk on the last carriage of the last Yamanote line train on the Friday night after payday who having spent all evening drinking way more beer that he can possibly hold wants to know can I use chopsticks, do I like Nato and sushi, and who then turns around and barfs all over the other passengers, who happen to be Japanese, cause he would not dare barf on a gaijin. That's "Gaijin Power" for you. You turn an look at all these poor people covered from head to foot in long strands of Ramen or Udon and assorted bit that you can only guess at what they originally were and you smile, and you praise the lord your not Japanese.
Instead of being angry at them, you feel sorry for them, cause you are free mentally, spiritually and socially, and they are not.
To all, please remember that a sword cuts both ways, and either cut is equally painful.
Rev. Greg, friend, and all -
This seems like the appropriate place to make this observation. It occurs to me that one of the reasons for the whole Nichiren as Buddha issue with Nichiren Shoshu and some other Fuji schools is that now there is a Japanese Buddha who is better/more original/true than that lesser Indian Buddha. Appeals to the whole Japanese superiority complex, neh?
Namaste, Engyo Mike Barrett
Posted by: Engyo Mike Barrett at November 21, 2005 10:48 PMYeah, it´s like that Japanese young woman Asami who introduced me to SGI. This article reminds me of her...
Best regards
Peter
PS. Sensei forever!
Posted by: Peter Ulrik Röder at November 19, 2005 09:02 PMLOL. Not since Richard Hayes (the infamous Mubul of talk.religion.buddhism) ranted about his experience with Japanese Buddhism in Japan have I read such a funny but honest rant.
I have to say that I have not spent enough time in Japan to experience this amount of negatives. Most of the time I got there I am with my wife and in-laws (who are really great and wonderful people) or with fellow Buddhists who (with some exceptions) know to be polite so as to at least present the pretence of being enlightened. In fact, I feel really fortunate to have almost always seen the good side of Japan.
However, I do know for a fact that only half of Japan really likes natto (fermented bean paste) while the other half only pretends too because they know that it is something that supposedly only Japanese could like. Now after reading this I am suspicious about the first half - though I do know one fellow "gaijin" who actually likes it.
A Japanese Buddhist who had lived in the US for about a decade once floored me by asking the following question after seeing a bunch of books about Buddhism in English: "How are these guys able to write so much about Buddhism?" This clueless person had no concept of the fact that for over a century Western scholars have been translating Buddhist texts, while others have been getting ordained and training under Asian Buddhist teachers in many lineages and establishing practice centers all over the US for decades now. In fact, it was Western scholarship that introduced the Pali Canon to Japan, and I would bet that most non-ethnic Western Budhists know much more about the Dharma than most ethnic Buddhists in their own countries (and that includes the clergy). His lack of knowledge of Western Buddhism and arrogant assumption that only Asians or perhaps only Japanese know Buddhism just left me practically speechless.
Also, the more you learn about Japanese Buddhism the more you respect the true greats like Nichiren or Dogen, but also the more you realize that 99% of it was just magical thinking and pandering to the ruling class. It makes sense to me now that when people in Japan found out I was there to learn/practice Buddhism they would say things like, "Why don't you go to a real Buddhist country like Thailand?"
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Interesting, Greg.
It sounds like the Japanese culture, as it is now,
is not unlike our American Right Wing. Very adolescent, insular, and tribal.
No wonder Nichiren Daishonin was so harsh in his condemnation of its religious community. It hasn't really changed that much in seven centuries.
Rev. Greg:
I've had plenty of experience with what you've written. It was really interesting that Japanese women's division here gave me a lot of condescending crap at one point, until I told them angrily that although my name is English, my old man was a miliatry guard over Japanese prisoners of war, and that even though my name is English, I was raised as a strict German! Another deluded "master race" - now that got their attention (fast) and that status conscious BS came to a screeching halt. Go figure.
Charles
Posted by: Charles at November 17, 2005 09:44 PMYou mean they really do not like fish eyes?
Posted by: robin at November 17, 2005 07:22 AMWhat an extraordinarily candid and myth-busting article this has been. So many of the little things I have either been told by Americans who had spent some considerable time in Japan or have read is now confirmed.
The ethnocentrism of the Japanese is something I don't think the average American has any real concept of, surely we have the "patriotism" of the flag and our common citizenship but not an ETHNIC or racial awareness or pride or whatever it is that the Japanese apparently have. it has been said that Japanese just like to be around other Japanese that there is a joy in that very sense of tribe. I won't criticize them for that as the Spainiards seem to also have this real sense of community bound in with ethnicity.
Of course as an American that is something I think I cannot find embraced in our culture as diversity is the theme here.
This blog is certainly "fraught with peril" to sacred cows and other closed mindedness, I am always so pleasantly surprised and challenged by the writings by Rev Greg and Rev Ryu and I also find value in the other writers as well but I do have my favorites.
One of the finest Americans who really GOT IT about being an American was the late, great Asian-American actor Keye Luke, is it me or don't they make people like that anymore?
Posted by: peace at November 17, 2005 04:41 AM