Controversial title given how generalising it implies. Of course, there are many angles of experiences one can take anywhere.
Last time we were in Japan, we witnessed plenty of built-in racism, for example (no-foreigner bars, unfair treatment of us by shoving us in the back corner table to hide us from view and not serve us, this kind of thing). It's a lesser-known generalisation of Japan but still very prevalent in places, particularly the big cities, I'd imagine.
This time, we moved away from the big cities to Hokkaido, and the 'local' experience was significantly different.
Sure, there was still that almost suffocating forced politeness one comes to expect, with full on 90-degree bows for even the most basic services, but on one fateful night in a town called Otaru, my wife and I saw for the first time, truly relaxed Japanese in their natural habitat.
Otaru
I'm actually skipping several days, as this experience came after the skiing part of our trip. Otaru was a place we decided to visit for a more down-tempo, relaxed finale to our trip. It's a small town but only an hour or so train ride from the Airport.
Honestly there was nothing much going on there. It's hardly a tourist town; it's main attractions being a canal and some glassworks. The glassworks are pretty cool, but the canal is literally just that: A canal.
If you've ever seen a river before, it's like a less interesting version of that. There's even a boat you can go on which covers a total of about 20 metres of canal before returning lol. I'm from England and I've been to Venice and Florence so... yeah. Yawn.
The true memorable moments didn't happen until the evening when we were walking about and stumbled across a shop with a LOT of sake bottles from floor to ceiling. Yum.
As we went in to browse, we noticed quite a ruckus happening somewhere in the back of the shop. A closer inspection showed us there was a kind of secret staircase with some Japanese-only instructions which I promptly attempted to translate on my phone.
It turns out there was some kind of ticket-based system you had to follow in order to partake. After being shooed away to find an ATM - this place was cash-only - we went up the stairs and saw a small room of 3 tables and an old man at the counter, smiling away and bantering.
There were two groups of people, one of about 5-6 people, and another just 3. And then there was us!
The old man spoke almost zero English, but he was more than happy to engage with us and show us the ropes. The ticketing system was... about as confusing as it was seemingly unnecessary, but mighty fun!
It took us ages to figure it out but long story short, it turned out that you choose a drink from the fridge and pay for it with cash. Instead of giving you change, they give you these tickets, which you can then collect and hand in for another drink once you have enough.
If you don't finish the night having used up all the tickets, well, you have to come back next time! I suppose it encourages loyalty or something perhaps?
To me the function and purpose wasn't why I liked it, it was the way this old man and his wife downstairs came up with this idea themselves for their local little area and clearly created a loyal, familiar group of friend-customers in the process.
And these friend-customers were friendly indeed! It didn't take long before one of the ladies drew her attention to my wife and started calling her kawaii (or correcting us and using the more correct term - language barriers and all). Before long they were drunkenly embracing each other and handing each other gifts; My wife gave a fluffy hat-scarf thing this lady said was nice, and in return she disappeared and came back with two homemade cinnamon cake things for us to take home!
Speaking of freebees, the old man's assistant poured us drinks and, after telling us shhhh - don't tell the boss - she overflowed our drinks so a large amount of extra sake spilled into the glass drinking bowl beneath it.
Shortly after, the old man himself gave me a FREE beer AND gave us both free extra snacks.
Getting caught up in the spirit of it all, my wife then decided to give the ladies' table - now 3 - a round of orange plum wine - met with more hugs and bows and cheers.
Finally, towards the end of the night, an entire round was given to the the room by the old man, on the house!
Things were quickly wrapping up and everybody suddenly started leaving so, a little confused we followed suit, but not before getting some pictures with the old man, whose T-shirt is unbeatably cool!
Then, without any time to digest the fact that we will never see these people or share this experience ever again, we simply said our goodbyes and left.
In a way I felt quite sad after the fact. For all we knew, this was the final opening night of the year, or perhaps they were final farewell drinks they were handing out. I mean, they were pretty old.
A kind of melancholy hit me later, too. This was the one and only time I feel we actually saw genuine Japanese people, with genuine smiles and joy, unrestrained. Of course, it's not some rare thing that Japanese experience joy, but it's rarely shown in any environment we outsiders would partake in. You don't see it in hotels or resorts or the streets of tokyo or any services.
It must be exhausting. We've said a few times in the past that we could almost feel the gritted teeth behind the bows and smiles being thrown in our direction. But here in Otaru, they felt so... normal. Happy.
And they were more welcoming than any of those being paid or socially expected to be welcoming. They just were welcoming to us as if there was no distinction between us.
So, out of my two trips to Japan so far, this evening alone stands out as the most genuine. Perhaps @selfhelp4trolls can weigh in on this, since I assume he experiences that 'real' Japan on the daily.
[//]:# ([//]:# (!worldmappin 43.19229 lat 141.00729 long A local experience d3scr))
the guy is wearing a t-shirt with a very interesting and authentic writing. It seems like he gives a lot of positive vibes to everyone.
Did you just use the AI response for that? describing the T-shirt as having 'authentic writing' is nonsensical - the writing is English, in Japan
So sorry, i mean is interesting, not authentic.
Ah, just needed to check you're not a bot that was my main concern!
When we travel, we tend to ignore big cities but going inwards to the little towns. Authentic people and food. Great post 👌
It's a great strategy in the end, almost always. But there's just so much temptation to see everything in one small space in a day or two, especially in places like China where the land is so vast and you need bullet trains and planes to get from one thing to another
That’s true as well of course. I need to travel more again 😉
Also I think it’s important to note that 50% of Japanese people want to break social norms (physical contact, dropping formalities, being more 随意 suiyi, but they fear the repercussions)
lol shit I should have made a post in response. I might at some point but busy with music stuff these days. May have some questions for you
Sounds good to me, feel free any time =]
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I don't think these kinds of moments are difficult to find, if you drink a lot and spend money....
There are so many angles, I could answer this, but one that just came to me: In Japan, each place serves it's function and that function can change, but if you go against people's expectation of a place, it backfire at least half the time, usually with awkward avoidance or passive agressiveness. It can go well, but not very often . A chain cafe is not a place to make friends or have a friendly conversation with a stranger. An old style cafe run by a retired couple is. Sadly there are fewer of those.
Expecting people to speak English is the same. There are places that welcome tourists. If you go somewhere that isn't touristy, you are expected to at least attempt to be able to communicate your needs. Also Japanese people have truama about English because they spend so long studying it ineffectively.
I wouldn't call it racist as much as just rigid. I think overall in Japan, local people with tattoos or piercings have a much harder time than foreigners (even foreigners with the same kind of appearance).
In Japan, the standard is to assume you are a nuisance everywhere you go, and foreigners don't do that, so they are by definition a nuisance. This is the only way things function as well as they do despite a decaying economy. It's not about race or nationality MOST OF THE TIME.
I think in many ways, North and South America and China tend towards one extreme and Japan is a rare case of the other extreme. I like balance.
They're just scared of things out of the ordinary, unless you find people eager for those kinds of things, and those people are usually drunk.
Honestly I get fed up with the way gentrification has weeded out all of those so-called third spaces that don't involved alcohol, but the alcohol driven places are still thriving, for no reason other than the fact that some people are willing to spend more money on alcohol than food.
I don't drink anymore so it's very difficult for me to meet new people. I have to hang out places with drunk people as the only sober one, which is ok while they are tipsy, I don't like it when they get too sloppy haha, never really have.
Tell me if you are in Tokyo next time! I'll try to show you more of that.
I mean, fear of the unknown and unfamiliar is essentially what racism is. I don't think we should shy away from the idea that there's racism in such a monocultural nation anymore then we do about those in China or multicultural USA. It's a response, and I understand it.
Most aren't trying to me malicious I get that. But it still doesn't feel good when you're the target of it. I've lost count the number of times people in the metro here in China either move away when I sit down, even to a significantly more crushed space or even just stand up. I'm so often the one with the empty seat next to me. It's gonna so much worse for black people.
But, I understand it. It's not malicious.
I'm sure it's easy if you live there to find these moments, combined with being outgoing. But for any travellers like me you just don't see or feel it. It all feels strangely... Well like I said, suffocating.
I remember being in a park and little were training some dance choreography. But the music was turned way down and they were literally whispering to communicate.
Same with the ones playing frisbee. We could hear the silence like some weird noise cancelling technology cloaked the sky, it was bizarre.
Then again maybe it's just stuck a huge contrast from here where everybody is yelling and spitting All. The. Time.
Lol.
Final point, when I was eating some Japanese news I saw that debt, and debt related suicide, has skyrocketed, and I wonder about the hidden despair going on as its economy slowly turns to dust (and whether the same inevitability will happen in the UK)
I don't think it's racist to want to protect your culture. I think racism is just to assume that some difference is due to race without taking into account culture, economics, and other factors, and to treat individuals in a certain way due to racial stereotypes even when they don't fit those stereotypes.
That doesn't mean I agree with the methods and reasoning for Japan wanting to protect it's culture, and there definitely IS some racism and even more xenophobia, like a level that goes beyond wanting to protect the culture and actually looking down on other cultures. I just don't think that makes up a significant amount.
I think most cultures have a concept of "You can be whatever you want and do whatever you want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else" but Western cultures tend to focus on the first half of that statement and Asian cultures tend to focus on the latter half. Not always but definitely more.
Exactly! See, I feel that kind of overwhelming in your face feeling in the US as much as China even if it's different. Japan actually feels more comfortable to me than anywhere else I've ever been and I say that despite the fact that it's EXTREMELY UNCOMFORTABLE to me. I guess I'd rather struggle to connect with people than struggle to get them off my back, the former feels like I have some control over it while the later just makes me feel like people suck and I don't want anything to do with them lol. I'd rather long for human interaction than long to be alone....lol!
Agreed on this but I suppose there's a somewhat blurry line there where each side experiences it differently. If I'm in Japan restaurant and immediately get shunned into the corner behind the kitchen where they can't even see me (plenty of other tables) and ignore me when asking to be served, I'm gonna see that as racism.
They might be able to spin it as 'we just want it to look Japanese to others coming in and be in a safe environment' or something, but come on lol. In the West you'd probably get shut down for that behaviour.
Perspectives. You're right though, I don't get the feeling it's significant whatsoever. Just little tidbits here n' there.
That's a nice way of putting it. The hyper-liberalism of the West also is not nearly as adopted around the world as people in the West like to believe. Not only is it 'do whatever you want' but it's championed at all costs, rather than socially stigmatised which was, until recently, the norm.
I don't think that sits well in places like Japan. Yeah do whatever degenerate shit you want but... keep it on the downlow, out of sight.
Tbh England (what's left of it) is the Japan of the West in this one regard, the hyper-emphasis on manners, traditions & rules. Be quiet, queue, hold your cutlery in a certain way and so on. But it doesn't go nearly as far as Japan.
In both countries I feel a bit of an alien even though one is literally my home. China has ruined me haha.