By Claytonian
Despite all the drawbacks of being a stranger in a strange land, it brings interesting opportunities to meet people. In general, the Japanese are not cold towards strangers. A little shy and scared sometimes, yes, but for the most part the farther into the countryside you go, the more curious about you they get, which leads to interaction sooner or later. I would be slightly surprised if someone in Tokyo treated me differently from a native, because foreigners (or GONADs as Cooney so wonderfully coined it) are pretty common in the city. But I'm no expert on the big city as of yet, so lets draw the focus back to the inaka, or countryside.
If you take a seat in any kind of eating establishment in the inaka, you are probably going to get an interview that consists of a very predictable pattern: Where are you from? Where is that? Is it near California? Are you an English teacher? Do you cook? And so on. The interview can get a bit annoying in that we are confronted with these questions regularly and the questioner will soon forget your answers, but you can't deny that it is a good way to meet people and start friendships*. To top it off, the natives will probably treat you to something! Just remember to pay the goodwill forward.
I've lived in real inaka before, but my current town is considered to be inaka too, especially by snooty Tokyoites, who are up to their eyeballs in GONADs, so sometimes I get the old interview and insta-friend treatment here. The other day I got a bit of a surprise when a man I was passing on the street stopped me. He launched into a story about how just after the war he made friends with an American MP. He told me, and repeated many times, the name of the American: "Richard Anderson DICK!"** I, finding his story touching, attempted to google the name to see if we could find out what ever happened to Mr. DICK!, but didn't have much luck. In any case, my new friend invited me into his house and we had a little feast. I promised to come again.
You get these nice surprises, and come into contact with kind strangers all the time over here. They treat you well, and you can never repay them. It's beautiful, and it's so very Japan.
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* Many friendships end the very night they begin with a phenomenon called shakoujirei (social obligation), in which the person says you should come over and hang out sometime, but doesn't really mean it. Try not to be disappointed if you never hear from the person again. Some relationships, like rare elementary particles, can't survive being outside of the hadron collider that is an izakaya.
**I changed the "middle" name to protect the anonymity of the veteran, wherever he may be. I guess Mr. DICK! was an OG GONAD. I didn't bother to point out to my elderly friend that Richard and DICK! are probably the same name.
Despite all the drawbacks of being a stranger in a strange land, it brings interesting opportunities to meet people. In general, the Japanese are not cold towards strangers. A little shy and scared sometimes, yes, but for the most part the farther into the countryside you go, the more curious about you they get, which leads to interaction sooner or later. I would be slightly surprised if someone in Tokyo treated me differently from a native, because foreigners (or GONADs as Cooney so wonderfully coined it) are pretty common in the city. But I'm no expert on the big city as of yet, so lets draw the focus back to the inaka, or countryside.
If you take a seat in any kind of eating establishment in the inaka, you are probably going to get an interview that consists of a very predictable pattern: Where are you from? Where is that? Is it near California? Are you an English teacher? Do you cook? And so on. The interview can get a bit annoying in that we are confronted with these questions regularly and the questioner will soon forget your answers, but you can't deny that it is a good way to meet people and start friendships*. To top it off, the natives will probably treat you to something! Just remember to pay the goodwill forward.
I've lived in real inaka before, but my current town is considered to be inaka too, especially by snooty Tokyoites, who are up to their eyeballs in GONADs, so sometimes I get the old interview and insta-friend treatment here. The other day I got a bit of a surprise when a man I was passing on the street stopped me. He launched into a story about how just after the war he made friends with an American MP. He told me, and repeated many times, the name of the American: "Richard Anderson DICK!"** I, finding his story touching, attempted to google the name to see if we could find out what ever happened to Mr. DICK!, but didn't have much luck. In any case, my new friend invited me into his house and we had a little feast. I promised to come again.
You get these nice surprises, and come into contact with kind strangers all the time over here. They treat you well, and you can never repay them. It's beautiful, and it's so very Japan.
--
* Many friendships end the very night they begin with a phenomenon called shakoujirei (social obligation), in which the person says you should come over and hang out sometime, but doesn't really mean it. Try not to be disappointed if you never hear from the person again. Some relationships, like rare elementary particles, can't survive being outside of the hadron collider that is an izakaya.
**I changed the "middle" name to protect the anonymity of the veteran, wherever he may be. I guess Mr. DICK! was an OG GONAD. I didn't bother to point out to my elderly friend that Richard and DICK! are probably the same name.
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