Holy Crap! A White Person!
In an earlier post I mentioned that all the subgroups of people in Kusatsu are old, young, male and female. I feel a little elaboration is needed.
There are practically no foreigners here. In fact, outside of my one American coworker, I have met one person in Kusatsu who is not Japanese. This environment leads native Kusatsans to strange reactions when they see a 6-foot American with curly hair walking down the street.
The most common reaction is The Stare. This is a wide-eyed (forget that stereotype that Japanese people have small eyes!), mouth agape, full-on ogling. These starers are completely unabashed - nothing short of a car crash gets them to re-focus their attention on anything other than the gaijin (pronounced guy-jeen). Staring back at them does nothing. As does making faces (smiling, growling, or cross-eyed), or even speaking to them (in any language). They simply don't get the hint. I'm slowly becoming more accustomed to the ways of The Stare, but it still can be a bit unnerving. Fortunately Kyoto is 20 minutes away by train, and its full-blown city status lends itself to contain many foreigners. The Stare exists there too, but to a much lesser extent.
Even so, the Japanese-only effect has taken its toll on me as well. When I first encountered the rare gaijin, I started thinking "Oh boy! I can speak to someone here!" Of course, the irony here is that all white people look the same. Or, rather, all white people look like Americans. So several times I have started speaking to these assumed English speakers, only to find out they don't speak English at all - instead they're Russian, German, Italian, or some other denomination of "white."
Numerous such experiences have left me strangely gun-shy about speaking to people who I share the same foreigner status with. I keep prodding away though - I did meet a guy from New Zealand and a chick from Atlanta. So the number of peers I know in this country has skyrocketed to 9.
So let the good times roll!
There are practically no foreigners here. In fact, outside of my one American coworker, I have met one person in Kusatsu who is not Japanese. This environment leads native Kusatsans to strange reactions when they see a 6-foot American with curly hair walking down the street.
The most common reaction is The Stare. This is a wide-eyed (forget that stereotype that Japanese people have small eyes!), mouth agape, full-on ogling. These starers are completely unabashed - nothing short of a car crash gets them to re-focus their attention on anything other than the gaijin (pronounced guy-jeen). Staring back at them does nothing. As does making faces (smiling, growling, or cross-eyed), or even speaking to them (in any language). They simply don't get the hint. I'm slowly becoming more accustomed to the ways of The Stare, but it still can be a bit unnerving. Fortunately Kyoto is 20 minutes away by train, and its full-blown city status lends itself to contain many foreigners. The Stare exists there too, but to a much lesser extent.
Even so, the Japanese-only effect has taken its toll on me as well. When I first encountered the rare gaijin, I started thinking "Oh boy! I can speak to someone here!" Of course, the irony here is that all white people look the same. Or, rather, all white people look like Americans. So several times I have started speaking to these assumed English speakers, only to find out they don't speak English at all - instead they're Russian, German, Italian, or some other denomination of "white."
Numerous such experiences have left me strangely gun-shy about speaking to people who I share the same foreigner status with. I keep prodding away though - I did meet a guy from New Zealand and a chick from Atlanta. So the number of peers I know in this country has skyrocketed to 9.
So let the good times roll!
posted by David at 9:26 AM
2 Comments:
You know 9 fucking native speakers? Jesustittyfuckingchrist. I know 3 and I've met 2 of them once. My advice: start dating a Japanesy and improve your language skills.
No, I don't know 9 native speakers. I know 3 native speakers, and 2 of them, as you, I've only met twice. I work with the other one. The other 6 people are Japanese, but they speak pretty good English.
Post a Comment
<< Home