Snowy

Hey ambrose thankyou for your post on racism. There was one time when I was refused entry in a Bar for being a foreigner (see previous post.) because it was a snack bar. Some snack bars and soapland establishments dont accept foreigners (re the photos on the link) but these kind of places you wouldnt want to go anyway. I thinks there is a certain amount of ethnic racism from various extreme groups such as the people who drive around in sinister black vans blaring out patriotic music, but these people are far from the mainstream. I dont think its so much racism that can be a problem its more the fact that there is too much emphasis on difference in Japan. Im a foreigner so I am considered inherently different by Japanese and vice versa; this can be very frustrating.

Of course I am more than just a foreigner, I am a Beckham too. Thats right, im not from England i am from Beckhamland.
"Where are you from?"
"Im from Eng..."
"BECKHAM! BECKHAM! BECKHAM!"

And so have unfolded a thousand conversations. Its almost like some kind of disease that people are trying to spit out. To think that my country is synonomous with a man who has the charisma of a mouse fart is highly depressing. I remember watching him on some cooking programme where he had to sample various japanese dishes and then comment on how they tasted. After the on switch had been pressed in his rectum he would utter every time:
".........very.........good......"

To come up with this creative energy to speak looked like it had shattered him. It seemed so difficult that it was almost like he was trying to squeeze an elephant out of his bum. The translator felt rather embarrassed by his mundane replies so she was interpreting very liberally. "oh thats yummy," "delicious," "fantastic!" For me David Beckham is the perfect embodiment of Charisma Man (or re Carlos in previous post.)

Gaijin pt 9189893918 (ad nauseum)

hi andy, just thought i would use my team member status to muscle in here and post some stuff that may be of interest to yr situation.
there's a thread here about "racism in japan" that is quite interesting. The main protagonist is Momus, a (sort of) pop er....musician, who has lived in Japan. he has written an article on the subject here (comments appended)

this site documents cases of "discrimination" in japan against foreigners.

Momus is a devils advocate who delights in bucking the party line, bu he writes in an interesting and provocative, albeit possibly misguidedly. I personally dont reacct to what he says with such scorn as others, but that i mainly because i have never even been to japan, and have no experience as such.

i guess my own experience of living abroad in russia, (whilst i would never claim to have exprienced discrimination in a offical, signs-in-windows sort of way), at the time, i found the paranoia and xenophobia of russians enourmously frustrating, especially given the warmth they displayed towards me when they wanted to. the idea of trying assimilate was uppermost in ones mind in the first few months, the desire to stop being stared at, to be treated the same, but i quickly realsied that such an ideal of integration, of passing as a russain, was completely out of reach. but others continued to find it irritating. so in part i undertsand momus' desire to celebrate the otherness of being a foreigner. on the otherhand, this divorement and seperation of foreigners from "natives" leads to the highly polarised world of moneyed Moscow, where rich western businessmen cavort with New Russians (de facto foreigners in theri own country, prob. of their own volition) in a world seperated by millions of dollars, if not by 100s of metres, from the Real Moscow around them, and this scene can be pretty ugly.

obviously the gap (im assuming) between gaijin and japanese is different, seperated by (perceived?) race, nationality, language etc, whwereas in Russia it is the money that creates the gulf (foreigners are equated with wealth to an almost absurd degree)

i wondered if you have been barred entry to any places andy?

anyway, a few things to mull on over the weekend.