Seriously, Japan, WTF? [NY Times Magazine] "Love in 2-D"

A friend of mine had a very interesting time in Japan as an English teacher.

As a white person in a very homogeneous Asian society, he was treated with lots of respect and politeness, but always as an oddity also. Girls would want to date him, and older Japanese women would actually want him to basically be arm candy that they could show off to their friends, but did not want to be romantically involved.

His sexual experiences were very strange, and the total submissiveness was very evident, but what was very surprising was when he was asked to take a shower before and after sex. He did say a girl or two wanted to be treated like an "American girl" in the bedroom and were a little more progressive in their performance.

He also couldn't get used to the idea that a lot of the strange sexual fetish type stuff was SO much in the open. If a guy goes walking down the street with weird sex stuff from a shop in America he's going to get some stares from people. In Japan, it was everywhere, in the open, and nobody batted an eye.

Interesting country indeed.

 

No one can define what love is. I would classify people who fall in love for the ones who treat them like trash in the same category as him. Both sides need urgent help.

I think it is wack to fall in love with cartoon characters. But at least he's not thinking of ways to murder people or anything harmful. Wierd, yes. But not insane.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_novel

 

Oh, to add to the above post, just did a search and realized that particular game has even been released in English.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Capo_(visual_novel)

The character mentioned is the main female lead.

 

number 3 made me laugh

 

This thread reminds me of one of the most interesting blogs I've ever read from a Black guy who taught english in Japan.

Just read his stories and you'll see how early kids in Japan are screwed up.

For starters here's an example - http://www.gaijinsmash.net/archives/introduction_-.phtml

 

I'm surprised this is news to some of you

You're all too old

 

Comic-Con, Star War's Convention, LOTR, Harry Potter, Comic shops all play roles in this......

 

This is a tangent but my experience in Japan was different. The people weren't that friendly or interested in me. It seemed like at first glance they either thought I was Japanese or in a few cases realizing I didn't speak Japanese thought I was Korean, who the Japanese look down upon.

 

Sean: Do you have a soul mate?

Will: Define that.

Sean: Someone you can relate to, someone who opens things up for you.

Will: Sure, I got plenty.

Sean: Well, name them.

Will: Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Frost, O'Conner...

Sean: Well that's great. They're all dead.

Will: Not to me, they're not.

Sean: You can't have a lot of dialogue with them.

Will: Not without a heater and some serious smelling salts.

 

The Japanese culture is in love with foreigners. And by foreigners, basically white people. If you're Asian, they'll look down on you. If you're white, you're this exotic fruit that everyone loves.

 

This is actually true. This is one of the contributing factors to why Japanese women are often enamored with American men: the Japanese men are often creepy.

 

That blog is classic. Didn't know the worker bees instinctively knew when to wake up when it was their subway stop.

 

everytime my faith in humanity is restored the Japanese come by and shatter it once again.

 

It's not really the shade of skin. The article mentions their infatuation with Westerners. The Japanese are in love with Western Culture, particularly American since it is the most widespread.

The paleness thing is new to me, though. Not my cup of tea. I don't like pasties.

 

The skin paleness has to do with the fact that in the old days, dark skin = you ain't got money cause you got to work outside so you ain't good wife/mom material. Rich people keep their daughters inside doing non-poor people stuff.

Which indeed has nothing to do with being infatuated with white people.