“Gaijin”

I’ve mentioned it before but now it’s only starting to sink in that people really are curious about foreigners, “gaijin”. At first I wasn’t sure whether to call it awe, surprise, fear, respect, even racism at times, but now I’m positive that people in Japan are just very curious about foreigners. In fact, I think the difficulty I’ve had with it is because I get so many different reactions. Some examples could be called racism I suppose - not that I was really worried about it -, other times it really is fear or excitement.

 The fascination of foreigners extends outside of school. Some mothers hide their children from me, others shout at them for crossing my path. Girls give a yelp if I walk around a corner in front of them or lick their lips and try to look seductive. Boys either scream whatever english phrase they know from “I love you” to “Avril Lavigne”, or they stare at me in silence and then starting talking excitedly with each other about what they saw. Reactions are sometimes so funny that I can’t help but laugh even if I’m alone. Myself and the other exchange students have started to feed their curiosity by surprising them even more. The German girl and myself both have blues eyes and light brown hair which makes us extra special targets most of the time. Together we could change one person’s impression of the world outside of Japan forever, which is frightening to say the least.

So by now you’ve probably noticed that I haven’t been able to restrain getting an inflated head. Well, it’s difficult to understand and shocking when you have at how true what I said earlier is! Sometimes it really irritates me, all the staring and noting of every small action I make, but other times I like it. I like it when people show open curiosity and smile welcomingly as opposed to making assumptions about me that I live in LA California next door to Avril Lavigne (I’m not exagerating about this Avril Lavigne craze. I went to the shops with an exchange student friend and the next day at school everyone was whispering to each other about how I went on a date with Avril Lavigne). Most people I meet see me more as a topic of discussion or an item of interest. In conversation lulls their eyes rest back on me and they don’t seem to notice when I shift uncomfortably from the casual staring as if my mind is not there but my body is. If it’s just one person I’m meeting one-on-one they ask me pretty bizarre questions like how many centimetres my feet are and that they have a cousin who went to Belgium implying that Belgium is a part of Australia. Small talk in Japan is very different to small talk in Australia.

Most of the people at school don’t think I can speak any language. They seem to think I don’t have any education but still a person who deserves admiration and a bow. A girl was helping me do some classwork and she started translating english numbers from english to english without realizing until I couldn’t hold back my laughter. When I speak english they show open astonishment as if the language is a skill. They’re shocked when I pick up Japanese or when I show that I’ve learned something. Japanese people seem to think that Japanese is a very difficult language that is close to impossible for gaijin to learn, the truth is that it’s actually, in my opinion, a very easy language to learn but obviously difficult for me to just pick up meanings from hearing conversation all day long. When somebody gapes at me when I’m on my bike I can’t help but wonder if they’re surprised because I’m a gaijin or if they’re surprised that I’m a gaijin riding a bike. Luckily for me the belief that Americans don’t know simple skills in life (such as riding a bike) also applies to things that I don’t want to do. To put it simply I get special attention at school, for example I could skip a class and not get told off or use my phone in class and not get it confiscated – just because I’m assumed ignorant of common sense things.

I think it’s interesting and funny just because I know that nobody in Australia would be so foreign to foreigners. Sometimes I think that I can relate to someone but soon realize that they probably think I’ll be in movies when I return to America.

Despite the fact that everyone thinks I’m American I’ve heard of many more people travelling to Australia than America. In fact more than any other foreign country Australia would be the one that the majority of Japanese people are most culturally educated about. I’ve seen more pictures of koalas in Japan than my whole life in Australia.

Aside from my personal point at blue eyes and yell “GAIJIN!!!!” experiences, Japanese modern culture surprises me in a lot of cases by appearing as an imitation of Western culture. American pop culture for example was incredibly popular in Japan before it became too American to be American and thus became Japanese. Japanized western culture is as common in Japan as traditional Japanese culture and it’s almost pointless me talking about it since it’s so Japanese that it shouldn’t be surprising. Japanese youth fashion for example was probably based on Avril Lavigne video clips but now it’s been so Japanized that it bears no resemblance to what anybody would wear in America or Australia. On the coldest and rainiest days girls walk around the city in massive high heels with thin, black frilly socks that look like they might have originally been inspired by burlesque dancers. Above the socks they wear (or don’t wear) very tiny shorts and sometimes even smaller skirts. When I say tiny I mean that they’re only covering about a centimetre of leg. Above the shorts they wear a tight shirt that has strange english interpretations, for example (my personal favourite) “Shit me! I’m a sexy kitty babe! Mother Earth loves sexy!“. Sometimes this is covered by a fur coat or something else with gothic frills. Hair is just insane. I actually like their natural black hair but on teenagers it’s a rare thing to see. They dye it brown but it turns orange and it looks gross.

It’s not only the fashion that could have been an imitation. Although this isn’t exactly pop culture, the english language has been so Japanized that I cannot translate things that sound and look english because they are in the wrong context and mean something completely different. Food items especially, the most common being ice-cream. “Aisu” is what I call ice-cream in Australia. In fact I call everything frozen and sweet ice-cream in Australia. Here there are all sorts of different names. “Soft-cream” is supposedly a sundae, “Aisu-cream” is apparently flavoured ice (I don’t think there is actually an English word for it), “Sherbet” is what I would call sorbet (I don’t understand how that could confused). I don’t know why I find that interesting but it’s so many small differences like that that have made me wonder how many languages Japanese people are taught in their lives. Japanese for one, obviously, English at school, and then Japanese English which is completely different. A man I was talking to knew all the names of different shades of blue in English but didn’t know what they literally meant, for example Sky blue, pale blue, light blue, electric blue, sea blue, baby blue - he was listing them all for me and I actually learnt new names for light blue in english.