I guess you reach a point living in Tokyo that you kind of start to fight back. For a long time I gave the Japanese the benefit of the doubt even when no one else would. I still do this to some extent but not like I use to. These days I have simply had enough of people`s shit. I take the stance that `yeah I am not Japanese so get the fuck over it already.` I feel that a lot of Japanese need to grow the fuck up and accept the fact there are actually people living in places other than Japan. Further more these people who are not from Japan have a culture rich in history and do not speak Japanese. Not all Japanese are THAT retarded as to think Japan is the end all of end all but in my experience at least 30% of the population believes it to be true. I could just as easy say the same thing about my mother land America. Yet due to America`s unique diversity the effects are not as extreme as compared to Japan.
So yeah, I have been fighting back. I really don`t live by the Japanese thought process anymore. All of the insane ideas of what a `gaijin` should and should not be just does not fly with me at all. I am not a goddamn monkey. I do not put up with any disrespect from these people anymore. If they want my respect they will have to earn it the good old fashion hard way. I don`t give a damn if they feel Japan is special and the Japanese should get special treatment. They are human just like me. If they fuck with me I fuck with them twice as much right back. If they are nice to me and show REAL respect I will do the same. Now, let me stop for a minute and say that I do not hate Japanese people. I feel they have a interesting culture. At their best the Japanese are polite and caring people. At their worst they are backward and racist compared to the rest of the world.
Let me give yall two perfect examples of the best and worst of Japan.
The best: One time I had been getting drunk in Shibuya. I got pretty damn drunk that evening and ended up missing the last train. After wondering around the area I passed out in front of the now closed HMV. It was a nice warm night and I thought since the damn homeless bums can sleep on the street it would be okay for me as well. I don`t know how long a was sleeping there but I was awoken by a damn Metro cop working the late night beat. He said me to me in Japanese, `Are you okay? I don`t care but HMV get very angry to you for sleeping here. Please drink at bar for first train(Japanese language is hard to translate for me, they really do speak this way)` He did not arrest me or anything. He even showed me an all night bar for me to chill until the trains started running again. He was a really cool dude.
The worst: I had been working in Kamata. It had been a long day of working and I wanted nothing more than to go home and have dinner with my wife. I got to the station and goddammit here comes a fucking cop. He stopped me and demanded I present my `gaijin` card to him(gaijin means outside person. Gaijin card is an id card all non-Japanese are required to carry with them at all times). I refused of course because I know that by law no cop can ask me for my `gaijin` card without giving a reason. He refused to give me a reason and arrested me. He took me to the piggy box beside the station. For the next 3 hours I was asked a shit load of questions and treated like a common piece of trash. The bastard slapped me a few times and tried to get me to admit to some crime I did not do at all. He let me go when he realized I was wise to his game. That experience has caused me to totally not trust the Metro police. I got the asshole back the very next week. I puked all over the piggy box when they were on a smoke break.
So there is a fine example of the best and worst of Japanese people. I could give some more examples but I do not want this post to drag on. So at this point I cannot and will not put up with any Japanese bullshit at all. With that said, I still enjoy living in Tokyo. I have a hell of a good time on a regular basis. It is just that the Japanese will not fuck with me without getting a fight on their hands.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
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7 comments:
You'll probably get some responses from people crying about how racism and unfair detention by the police is rampant everywhere, and in America in particular. Most of the people who say that won't be American, but will base their "knowledge" of it on television shows and biased news reports from their own media.
That being said, racism is everywhere, because almost all people are racist. The difference between Japan and many other developed countries is that racism is institutionally supported in Japan at a deep and profound level or permitted by an absence of laws to prohibit it. While people are in an uproar in the U.S. because Arizona has the audacity to check papers of people who commit crimes and might be illegal immigrants, they are silent on the random racial profiling that causes the Japanese police to demand I.D. from people for nothing more than walking while being foreign.
There's a vast difference between racism which is held at bay by law (as it is in large part in Western countries) and racism which is not only not expressly prohibited but upheld by the law (as it is in Japan). Many individuals will always act in a racist fashion, and that cannot be stopped as we all have certain freedoms to do and believe as we wish, but it is what the government does as a result of the choices its citizens make which tells the tale of how racist the country truly is.
Yes, racism is a part of just about every society. And if someone wants to be racist that is their right. The thing is I don`t have to put up with it at all. I have no mercy for racist bastards. If someone brings racism to me I will fuck them every chance I get.
i feel like your example could be for any country outside our own. i loved that you puked at their station.
I have no patience for racists either, and I'm just as fed up with it in Japan as you are.
The thing is that it is getting worse here,not better, and the apologist bloggers who deny that experiences like yours (where a police office hit you and interrogated you) don't exist or are your own fault. It's tiresome, and it is refreshing that you speak out about it so clearly.
The thing is I also think that there are a lot of good things about Japan. I still feel lucky to live in a modern industrialized society like Japan.
With that said, there are a lot of social ills in Japan. The only way to deal with and fix these ills is to bring it out in the open and deal with it head on.
Probably should have taken a picture of the pig in question too. There was a recent hoo haa down south here at the Equator where a blogger got into an argument with two cops who pulled her car over. Got a video of them all over the web too. That was for much less (and some would say it was just for the publicity). Getting arrested for no reason and then slapped in a police station definitely calls for such action.
The cops in Japan as almost as bad as the cops in the states. Sad really because Japan has a lot to offer as a nation. I love living in Japan it is just that the system here is a total mess.
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