“Nice to meet you! Let’s get naked!” “AGGGHHH it's a foreigner!” And other cultural oddities!

Since I’ve last posted I’m gone to all my schools, met the teachers I will be working with, made quite a few new friends, climbed an EPIC mountain, traveled to Okayama to see one of my girlies from YWAM, visited the Asahi Brewery in Nagoya, begun to get networked with the Christian community in Yokkaichi, spoken at a church, and been asked to help start an inter-church young women’s small group, among other things. It’s been busy! (There are pics of most of these on facebook, so feel free to take the photo tour!)

But rather than giving you all the details of those events, I want to tell you some interesting cultural musings and experiences I’ve had. Especially for those of you readers that have never been over here.

I met this girl at a friend’s get together, and then I met here randomly again on the train a week later. She found out I like hiking, so she offered to take me to climb a mountain. Then she took me to the Onsen, the hot springs/bath house. It was our first time hanging out, and one of our activities was to get naked, take a shower right next to each other, and then go sit in a hot tub together, naked, and chat it up for an hour or so. NORMAL. I went to visit a friend from YWAM this weekend at her family’s house in Okayama. I haven’t seen her in 3 years, or her family in 5. When I arrived they took me to sushi, and then to the onsen. My friend, her mother, sister and I all bathed together. NORMAL. This weekend while I was gone one of my coworkers went to the onsen and ran into one of her students. Can you imagine being a junior teacher and running into one of your students while you are both naked? But here… it’s NORMAL. Interesting, huh? I’ve been here long enough to be comfortable with my body… around complete strangers and people I’ve just met… weird, I know. But here it’s NORMAL.

The other day I was wearing what I thought was a very cute and work appropriate blouse. Then my boss said to me… “Michelle, your shirt is very cute! You’re shirt is very Asian. Your shirt is colorful… Junior high students have to wear very dull colors…” End of conversation. I asked one of my coworkers who has been here longer what that could have possibly meant, because I had worn much more colorful clothes to work and never had it mentioned before. She said, “Oh, I was gonna tell you, our boss is o.c.d. about sleeve length, and yours were a bit short.” CUTE+ASIAN+COLORFUL+STUDENTS WEAR DULL COLORS= MY SLEAVES ARE TOO SHORT. Try that for indirect communication!!! Which, by the way, is the main way Japanese communicate.

I live here, but I don’t belong here. In the Japanese way of thinking at least. Their word for foreigner is 外人(gaijin). The character　外(gai) means outside, and 人 (jin) means person. We aren’t much nicer calling our immigrants back home “aliens.” Back home, diversity is the norm. Here, in Japan, homogeneity is the rule, as it has been from the beginning of this nation. The Japanese have a proverb, 出る杭は打たれる. (The nail that sticks out will be pounded down). Conformity is a virtue.

Japan. Land of a thousand gods. Land of 1.3 million faces. Walk through any crowded area and you will be greeted by a sea of flowing humanity... all Japanese.

In this land, I am 外人(gaijin). Foreigner. No matter how long I live here, no matter how fluent my Japanese becomes, I will always be 外人(gaijin). Imagine how utterly I would fail if I tried to fit in with all 5’8” of my gaijin-ness and red hair!

Being a foreigner here is both a blessing and a cures.

Downers:
#1. The “AGGHHHHH!!! WHAT IS THAT THING!?! PLEASE DON”T EAT MY CHILDREN!” face. This is often the reaction when a Japanese person suddenly sees me where they were expecting to see a normal Japanese person. This is by far the worse part of being gaijin for me. It makes me feel like I am some kind of monster and not a real person.

#2. Everyone knows where I live. I got off the train at 11:30 one night and was approached by a middle aged Japanese man that said to me in broken English, “You’re an American, and you live in Leo Palace Apartments!” Creepy!!!!!!!!!!!

#3. If I do anything wrong in public (like run a red on my bike or something) there’s a good chance of it making it back to my boss, cause its very obvious who I am and where I work.

#4. My head hurts from bumping into things, and my back hurts from bending over.

#5 I get stared out all the time, and I feel like a giant.

PLUSES:

#1. I will always be noticed. Need any attention fix? Try being a gaijin for a day.

#2. I get excused for my mistakes as not knowing better.

#3. I will be constantly praised for my ability to speak Japanese. Feeling down? Say five words, and suddenly everyone thinks you are the best thing since sliced bread! (tatemae mo aru kedo ne)

#4. I can break Japanese cultural norms. My favorite to break is “don’t talk to strangers.” I’ve made plenty of friends on the train, talked with the bus drivers the whole trip, etc. Japanese people would never do that with each other, but because I am gaijin, its fair game.

#5. When the train is really crowded I can still breathe easily because my head is above everyone else’s!

#6. If I ask for help, for example what train to take, I usually end up with someone to talk with the rest of the trip! So fun!

AN EXPERIMENT: One of my friends here is Asian American. He was bummed for a while that he wasn’t getting the gaijin treatment and getting to experience what the rest of us blatantly foreign people are experiencing. We were coming home late one night with a bunch of our coworkers, and talking about it in on our way to the train station. I said “Ok, watch this” as I slipped my arm through his. Suddenly, EVERYONE was watching us, gesturing towards us, and taking pictures. The reaction was, “AGGHH!! That Japanese guy is with that foreign chick!!! We’ve never seen anything like this before!” It was so funny to watch the whole train station react. (Yes, a part of it was that people aren’t used to PDA, but that level of PDA I see often enough to know that it wasn’t a reaction to that). Good thing I didn’t come over here with my heart set on finding a Japanese boyfriend! Their reaction tells me the odds of that happening. :P

Needless to say, I am what I am. Gaijin!! And I am gonna milk it for all its worth! Its so easy to talk to people here looking like I do and speaking Japanese. :D We’ll see what doors God continues to open for me! Soli Deo Gloria!

(PS I’ll post later about deeper things in my heart and mind, but for today, just some cultural trivia! THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS!! LOVE YOU FRINEDS!!)