Didn't your friends living in Japan tell you that they could drive safely to stop at a red light even in red light districts at night?
When I got upset at a border town in your country, a racial profiling that a border cop got on the bus and tageted only me, my friend kindly explained the smuggling problem by Asians.
So the island stuff is not relevant to this topic.
If the J cop have not stopped me for the infamous bike check, I would be an enegetic adovocate for non-Japanese residents here. But I've never forgot the stupid face of a cop last month. When he checked my bike, the host computer was running down then.
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.
But there again We all live on an Island, its a very small one, but its surrounded by the seas of space, which go on for miles and miles. 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.
I think you will find the correct answer is more than two counties, Russia is one of them, China is another and South Korea is the possible third, it all depends how far apart these countries are from Japan, if its less than 12 miles then there will be borders in territorial waters.How many countries share borders with Japan??
Water water everywhere, and all the boards did shrink,
Water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
I think it would be good to look into the matter more deeply, JapaMisawa_BR san. I would bet that we would, relatively speaking, not so much more--if any more--true xenophobic tendencies among the Japanese than any other social group.
I have known a fair number of folks from Brazil here and have spent a good bit of time with some of them. I would say that some would disagree with what you have stated, and some would agree--the difference very possibly being closely tied to the individual's personality and the degree to which that individual worked at operating in as much of a 'Japanese' social fashion as possible.
Before you draw any fixed and final conclusions, it would surely be a good thing to investigate it further.
*sigh* I hate to be responding to really old(and possibly offtopic) posts, but I feel an itching to respond to a few.
Depends on the European language. Japanese shares similarities to Uralic language. And Altaic language as well if you consider that European.
Ah, Ari Shaffir. What a crazy guy. I've never been fond of ethnic humor. Carlos Mencia, Dave Chappel, I've never enjoyed any of it. Makes me kind of uncomfortable infact. Not in the least bit funny.
He doesn't seem to mind racist humor toward other groups, so I wonder how he would feel about that sort of prank towards Jews?
I'm sorry, but saying that eye operations are to look more Caucasian is like saying those who tan are trying to look more black.
White skin has also been historically looked at as better in Japan. It's a part of Japanese culture and not born from any sort of foreign influence.
I dunno much about this whole eye thing really and what third fold or whatever means, but alot of Japanese, that I see have eyes just like me. On kids too young to be having any sort of surgery. But maybe I'm not looking closely enough at the eye...
Anyway, I appreciate the fact that Japanese people have more mixed feelings about non-Japanese than negative. Nobody wants to be hated.
Maybe I'm getting you wrong, but it seems like you think Japan having a sense of uniqueness is necessarily racist or nationalistic.
Every country has a sense of uniqueness. Japanese language is so unique that for a long time it was classified as a language isolate. Celts are not the same as Slavs. There's nothing nationalistic about Japanese recognizing that they are unique from other cultures in Asia just as European and African ones.
Thinking that your culture is superior and that people are superior is racist. Which can go along with thinking Japanese culture is unique. But not always.
To me it's racist to lump all Asian people and culture together just because they're Asian.
Forgive me if I've been too assuming.
Last edited by kireikoori; Sep 2, 2007 at 10:16.
Irrelevant to my point, which was meant to be taken in an abstract philosophical way rather than a concrete geographical way.
When I was a kid growing up in West Tennessee, I lived on an island. It was an island of the mind, circumscribed by the limits of my normal activities. In other words, any area that was beyond the area in which I normally moved, for all practical purposes, may as well have been separated from me by an ocean. There wouldn't have been any difference as regarded me as an individual.
As an adult, I live on a very tiny island of the mind which is physically located on a portion of Honshu. If the actual seashore were just a few kilometers north of my home here in Gunma, it wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference to my daily life. Everything and everybody on the other side of the boundary of where I normally travel may as well be 1000 miles, 10,000 miles, or a million miles away.
You've probably heard of people who were born, lived their lives, and died without ever traveling more than a few miles. What difference would it have made to them if the area had been bordered by water? That was as far as they were going anyway.
We all live on islands....we just don't all realize it.
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.
Uranus and Neptune. Ceres was once a planet, but it preceeded Pluto in its not-planetitude.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.
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.
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.Originally Posted by Mike Cash
I dunno, it's just a thought.
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wow,you people are quite uptight it seems. I have no problem with racial humor, as long as there isnt hate inflected in it.
I tell black jokes to my black friends,they don't lynch me,they laugh. I tell my fat friends not to fall asleep on the couch if I'm on it so I won't get crushed. I call my korean friend a chink and the like and he calls me crack or whitey or a hick. Yes people around us that hear us speak to each other get upset and try to lecture us on manners,but it doesn't concern them and we are ok with it,and that's all that manners.
I also don't have a problem going to comedy shows and laughing at the ethnic jokes infront of the ethnic people. I really don't understand why people(especially white ones) won't laugh(in public) at the jokes and say the comedian shouldnt use racial humor. It's funny to mock our differences or the sterotypes. I don't get my panties in a bunch when I see,repeatedly, a southern person on tv with such a strong accent. I personally don't know anyone with a thick southern accent, though that's what the producers want. It doesn't bother me to hear it though,because I find it amusing when I speak to someone from the north or west and they gasp because I don't sound like the people or tv.
Maybe it's because I was raised to judge people based on who they were and there was no racial undertone,or maybe there's just way too many scared white people.
Personally,since the Japanese programs are just poking fun at the people,and it's meant to entertain and not meant to be outright slanderous,I don't see the problem with it.
I don't isolate myself. I work in a Japanese company as the only non-Japanese person. My work environment is 100% Japanese. I have no real-life foreign friends or acquaintances, outside of once-in-a-blue-moon things like a JREF get-together. My children are monolingual Japanese speakers and attend our neighborhood public schools. I'm at a loss as to what more I'm supposed to do to not isolate myself.
No everyone isn't my friend,I don't see why you'd ask that seeing as I said that's how my friends and I are.I didn't say I walk up to black people and say "whassup nigga",nor do I walk up to asian people and call them "zipper-head."
I was trying to make a point that my generation is a relaxed one when it comes to most racial issues.
though,to be quite honest,I have no idea why everyone and their cousin wants to defend the black populace from things they apparently dont care about since they haven't voiced a complaint. Rest assured that a black leader has seen the program and has apparently deemed it "ok" or at least nothing to be troubled about.
Ummm. Sorry, I didn't mean to come off quite like that, implying that you do isolate yourself. Indeed, it seems that you've done a great deal of assimilation. I'm interested in what you and other expatriates have done, especially since I am planning on moving to Japan for several years before returning to the U.S. to finish my schooling.
Rascism is very ugly in my eyes.
My ex-husband and I have adopted two children from India.
I love my daughter and son very deeply and I don't see the differense between them and me.
I think it far more a matter of education and good manners
I don't like sitting next to a Dutch man/woman who has no manners.
But I sit next to anyone in this world who has good manners and is like me openminded.
It boils down a simple matter of "even though" instead of "just because".
I want to be able to live and work in Japan even though I am a foreigner...not just because I am a foreigner.
You jokingly asked in another thread if it was my dream to drive trucks. No, it wasn't. But it was my goal to attempt to live in Japan without taking any advantage of or making any use of my foreignness.
Now that I've seen I can do it, I feel perfectly free to go back to teaching English if I want. I just didn't want to keep on teaching English feeling that it was all I could do and that the only reason I could keep the wolf from the door was because of an accident of birth which meant that I picked up English as a child instead of some language that would be unmarketable in Japan.
I just keep driving trucks because it beats working for a living. Seriously, though, among other reasons, I just don't have the temperament for teaching English.
Amen brother. That's why I have the signature I have.It's not work to me and I do so much love driving trucks!Originally Posted by Mike Cash
Do What You Love And You'll Never Work Another Day In Your Life!
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