Quote Originally Posted by EmperorHirohito View Post
I live on an Island that is surrounded by water, oh deary me is that going to make me racist or resent other foriegn nationals? I certainly hope not.
Yeah, but, well, your island has suffered way more invasions than Japan. Celts, Rome, Angles/Saxons/Jutes, Vikings, Normans. Thankfully, for the past thousand years, you've been a'ight.

It is said that some people come from Mars and that some people come from Venus, but sometimes I do wonder if some people come from another of the planets, its somewhere inbetween Pluto and Saturn but for the life of me I cant remember its name right now.
Uranus and Neptune. Ceres was once a planet, but it preceeded Pluto in its not-planetitude.

The analogy isn't the same, though. England built a powerful navy to keep invaders out, but also traded for goods and maintained a strong presence in regional (and later global) affairs. Japan... shut down, really. If they could have built a wall around their shores to keep foreigners out twice as hard, they would have. And a bit of that mentality still seems to exist there.

But I have to say, in truth, the old adage: "no man is an island". You are in the world, and you can ignore it, embrace it, or coexist. It's your choice how you react to reality, but it's always there.

Quote Originally Posted by Mike Cash
An apt and often used phrase for describing living in Japan as a foreigner, but not quite what I was talking about.
Have you (or any other gaijin in Japan) considered viewing it throughout anthropological eyes? As an historian, I've been exposed to a great deal of anthropoligical works, and while most of these deal with cultures that are occasionally barely chalcolithic in technological capacities, the techniques could be applied to life in Japan. I mean, if we are going to be outsiders, instead of insulating ourselves, take the role of objective observer. And besides, the sort of racism you experience in Japan is nothing compared to what some neolithic tribal cultures will express towards outsiders.

I dunno, it's just a thought.