久しぶり Japan Forum!

[Ronin4hire]

Long time no see!

At the moment I'm living and studying in Osaka, Japan and considering I've been a polarizing person on this board in the past, I thought I'd share some of my opinions and experiences with you! (you're welcome)

First off, for me Japan has to be the country that I have felt the MOST safe in all of my travels. I've lived in North America and Western Europe and Australiasia, and I feel no hesitation to walk around at night. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not saying Japan is crime free or anything of the sort (I anticipate a bunch of know it alls who havent been here to come in and give me some horror stories that make the headlines if I don't make this disclaimer... don't bother, I'm not saying that these things never happened). Basically if you don't mess with anyone, nobody will mess with you... which leads me to my second point.

I have NOT ONCE been discriminated against, or if I was, then I wasn't aware of it (and yes I was looking out for it because of some of the horror stories that circulated on this forum). Yes I'm well aware that racial discrimination occurs in Japan and yes I'm well aware that other Asians bear the brunt of such discrimination, but if I remember all the horror stories that used to circulate the Japan Forum about racial discrimination, either you were REALLY unlucky... REALLY paranoid, or you're full of sh#t.

Finally I want to say something about the Japanese people... or rather I want to say nothing about the Japanese people as basically they are as diverse a range of personalities as you'd find in your own home country. Admittedly I'm studying in campus which specialises in foriegn languages which happens to be quite liberal minded, but I was living in a liberal environment back in New Zealand and other parts of the world too. Amongst my group of Japanese friends that I've made are overt homosexuals, (I cringe at the fact that I have to describe my friends in such a way because in my opinion sexual preference is such a trivial matter... but I'm doing so to make a point I guess..) macho rugby players, introverted gamers, promiscuous women, women who want a gaijin boyfriend, women who don't want a gaijin boyfriend, women who don't give a shit about their boyfriends nationality.... the list goes on.

Anyway... I'm having a great time here and meeting lots of interesting people from not only Japan but other parts of the world too!

Peace!

[MMM]

Good to hear from you Ronin. I am just down the street from you...at least for the next couple more days.

I am glad you raised the point about the massive diversity of personalities, lifestyles, etc. in Japan.

There are lots of opinions out there. Certainly we can talk in certain generalizations, like Japanese tend to have more negative opinions about drug use than Americans, but person to person there is a wide and wild range.

[Ronin4hire]

Oh yeah, completely agree MMM.

[SSJup81]

Cool, Ronin. Glad to see that you're having a positive experience there.

[JasonTakeshi]

Thanks for your input!

How long are you going to stay in Japan?

If you're still there in 2011, probably we will meet. I'll be at Osaka campus aswell. (Languages and International Relations)