I'm talking red, blue, etc.

What do you mean? That you wish there were smaller notes? Or that 1000 is too small for a note and that it too should be a coin?

I love that you're allowed to cycle on the pavement, so much safer sometimes!

I hate the pressure on women to be skinny and perfect. I know the UK is pretty awful for that as well, but I've seen magazine articles lauding that some girl dropped from 100 pounds to 87 (and ended up underweight!), and a lot of REALLY skinny girls thinking that they're fat. I don't like feeling like I am obligated to put on make-up just to be dressed for the day, rather than just because I fancy wearing it.

Well that can't be right.

So you want to wear shoes into your Japanese home?

Hmmm...

I too love the cash using culture and the collecting culture. Imust say t&e highlight though, is the language. I love seeing it, hearing it, and of course speaking it! :D

As for hate, I hate futons with a passion... I also can't stand Japanese food AT ALL... sorry guys :L
Seriously, my diet only consisted of Ramen and Chicken Curry during my ENTIRE stay lol
I'm just an extremely fussy eater

No, but the fact that the idea of simply wearing shoes in A home is barbaric to them is something I don't agree with. Japan historically tends to have a lot of arrogance with high culture.

I hate that. Many American cities have dedicated lanes to cycle in, and it's much more efficient than a biker trying to plow through a crown of people on their sidewalk. Nothing more annoying than the ringing of a bell and screech of tires behind me because I'm supposed to move out of the way of a cycler on the sideWALK.

Yeah, that is a bit confusing. I wish the 500 and 100 were also bills, or at least just the 500.

Barbaric? Arrogant? I think your words are little extreme here.

In the West we don't tend to sit on the floor. Our butts and hands are always 3 feet above the floor... Therefore there isn't a need to take off shoes.

However if you have tatami mats on your floor, where you sit, sleep, place your hands, etc. The last thing you want is any more dirt that is necessary getting into your tatami mats.

Makes perfect sense to me, and I know more people than not that move back from Japan and maintain that custom (yours truly included).

I don't think so. From the times of adopting chopsticks because eating with hands or silverware like the West was considered savage, to the closing of the nation to free itself from the "impurities" of other lands, to modern society where xenophobia still runs rampant. Where I've sat in classes and had discussions where people were trying to convince me that Japanese are "special" and are completely different from all other people.

Save for the fact that tatami can rip, your argument about sitting at a table versus sitting on the floor with shoes is bullshit. No need to take off shoes in a house because you're sitting in a chair? What if your house is all white carpet? And also if that were the case, you would have gone back home and continued to resume wearing shoes in your house rather than adopting the Japanese way, because I'm sure you're back to sitting in chairs again.

America has, almost everywhere, MUCH wider streets, compared to a lot of Japanese neighbourhoods. Also not all Japanese streets have pavements, so peds share the road with cars and cycles, so why not let cycles share with peds? Japanese people seem to manage it just fine. Besides, if a car swipes into the cycle lane and smacks a cyclist it's going to do a hell of a lot more damage than if a cyclist is an idiot and swipes a pedestrian.

Of course if a street doesn't have a sidewalk, you do what you gotta do. That happens in America as well. But while American streets may be wider, Japanese sidewalks are a lot more crowded.

Yes, your words are extreme. You are at it again, using the word "savage", "impurities" and " rampant xenophobia". Please.

My argument is far from bullshit. It is reality, which is actually the opposite of bullshit. The fact you have bullshit all over your shoes, and you walk where you sit, eat, and sleep in Japan is EXACTLY the reason why people do not wear their shoes inside the house. It has nothing to do with superiority, arrogance, or any other "bullshit" you want to associate with it.

You don't know me, so please don't assume you know my home or how I live beyond what I have told you.

I know people with white carpets that wear their shoes inside... so what? I am sitting at a chair, but I also have a kotatsu in my American home, and don't wear my shoes indoors. I sit on the floor as easy as I sit in a chair. What is the point?

America also has a drinking and driving limit at 0.08% BAC. That means you can drink and drive in America. That means bicyclists, who must ride on the road, are killed by drinking and drunk drivers on a fairly regular basis over here. I am sure it happens in Japan as well, but not by people who are legally able to drive, as the legal BAC in Japan is 0.00%.

I found that after getting used to Japanese currency, it seemed really strange to use bills for smaller amounts. One dollar bills seem incredibly wasteful as they are worth so very little.
If the 2000 yen bill were in wider use, I would be happy with even the 1000 being a coin.

As to the extreme language being used by WingsToDiscovery...
If you are searching for evidence to support your view that people are xenophobic, racist, looking down at you, etc... You will see that sort of thing anywhere you look, regardless of whether it truly carries that meaning. It is sort of like scientists cherry picking only results that support their hypothesis and being blinded to all that do not.
It is a really common habit among disgruntled English teachers in Japan - and in my observances, one of the steps to becoming one of those total Japan haters who start believing that anything they don't understand is someone talking about them behind their back... Or that any inconvenience is because people are discriminating against you based on race, etc.

Let's take a look at Japan's "rampant xenophobia" as it translates at the box office.

August 6–7 $26,237,614 -13.3% 17 Transformers 3 31
July 30–31 $30,266,577 +48.4% 17 Transformers 3 30
July 23–24 $20,394,041 -39.3% 17 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part Two) 29
July 16–17 $33,597,658 +180.4% 19 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part Two) 28
July 9–10 $11,980,622 -24.8% 17 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (3D) 27
July 2–3 $15,929,725 -14.9% 20 Super 8 26
June 25–26 $18,724,720 -2.8% 20 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (3D) 25
June 18–19 $19,254,560 -26.6% 21 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (3D) 24
June 11–12 $26,244,971 +23.5% 19 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (3D) 23
June 4–5 $21,244,530 -21.6% 20 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (3D) 22
May 28–29 $27,081,618 +16.5% 20 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (3D) 21
May 21–22 $23,240,411 +78.8% 19 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (3D) 20

You think I don't get WHY the Japanese don't wear shoes in the house? I do. But to go as far as considering other cultures uncivilized rather than simply different is the problem.

I'm glad you're comfortable with shoes or without. But the argument that going with shoes because of chairs and shoeless because of the floor is retarded.

It's not often that I even really bring up this issue. I'm not an English teacher, and if I were really that disgruntled I wouldn't even stay here. But what I do know are my experiences, such as being denied two apartments only after it was found out I was gaijin, or always being treated like a kid/talked to in English, getting handed English menus, etc whenever I'm out with friends of Asian decent (non Japanese) because I'm usually the only western person and they just assume my friends are Japanese.

I don't think it's as similar as scientists cherry picking results. How many times have you heard the same complaints from "disgruntled teachers?" Are they ALL really simply disgruntled and just making a big deal out of petty things, or is there really something more to it than that and maybe the complaints are legitimate?

I think you don't get it because of the words you choose to describe WHY Japanese people choose to not wear shoes in their homes. Those words are extreme and judgmental.

You may think the argument is "retarded" (your words) or "bullshit" (your words) but it doesn't make it not reality.

It's not why the Japanese don't do it, it's what they think of cultures that do do it. Not the same thing.

Making up an argument and then contradicting it is not reality.

heeeeeyyyy..... it's not just the English teachers, all foreigners in Japan are equally susceptible to become disgruntled.

I have received my fair share of discrimination in Japan, including major things like being flat out denied the right to rent an apartment and an office because I am gaijin, like with ZERO tatemae around it, like word for word translation "no, because you are gaijin".

I have also received my fair share of discrimination in Japan the other way, getting better treatment and nicer opportunities because I'm white, it honestly balances out in the end.

Just as equally you can become blind to it. To justify the choices you have made in your life you can deny that racism and xenophobia exists. You can deny a whole raft of issues that make it hard for a foreigner to live in Japan. I love Japan and would move back to live there in a heartbeat. I preferred living there than living in Australia by far and I would never have left if not for my wife!! But I witnessed and experienced quite a lot of xenophobic attitudes and outright, in your face racism during my time there. To try and deny it exists is ridiculous. Japan is not one of the least culturally diverse nations on the planet for no reason. I think many have very valid reasons to feel disgruntled about how non Japanese attempting to live there can be treated. There is little if any protection in law against discrimination based on race. Something that is very unusual in a developed nation in this age and I believe a testament to the xenophobic attitudes that pervade the nation. Because it is legitimised from the top down many Japanese can't even comprehend that some of their actions could be considered racist. But I challenge anyone to show that race is not an issue in Japan.

I wasn't referring to racism, specifically, but rather to the assumption that points of Japanese culture exist specifically out of racism or xenophobia... Like the example given of how people look down on other cultures where they don't take their shoes off.

It isn't that there is no racism in Japan, it's that most things in Japan do not exist to confound and frustrate foreigners. When you start saying things are done because Japanese people want to feel superior to you, or the like, is when I start shaking my head.

Also - a note on the " assuming Japanese isn't spoken" that seems to come up incredibly often... I can count on one hand the number of foreigners I have encountered in Japan during the 10+ years I have lived here who were proficient in the language. I have heard the complaint about people assuming you don't speak Japanese numerous times, but the majority have been from people who don't speak the language.

The fact is, the majority of westerners in Japan DO NOT speak Japanese. Even the majority of long term residents in Japan do not speak the language well. I have never had anyone doubt my ability to speak the language AFTER speaking it... But at a glance, it is in the best interest of a business to assume otherwise. A potential customer who cannot understand the menu is a customer likely to go somewhere they can understand the menu. If you check into tourism info, it has been shown that handing an English language menu out to clearly non-Japanese customers more than triples sales. So... Is it racist for a business to want to make money?

I must apologize, being the thread starter, I didn't read through every single comments in detail before posting this reply.

Anyways, on the note of racism, was the denial of service as described by James, a real case of racism? Or simply a safety measure due to the language barrier and the lack of understanding of the Caucasian culture?

I mean, putting yourself in their shoes, what kind of risk are they subject to when they provide service to someone they don't understand, both language-wise and backgroud-wise?

A risk of gaijin parties, loud music, multiple sex partners frequenting the premises, late night visitors, strange smells seeping through the door, inability to explain financial details, things like that
Those are my assumptions, slightly based on hearsay.

I can agree with Nyororin that the majority of things which come off as racist are certainly not due to outright intentional acts of racism or xenophobia, but a surprising (surprising to a Canadian that is) amount of them are.

Also, in most of the world, racism isn't done intentionally and spitefully but rather out of ignorance, that doesn't make it any less racist though :)

But this is the automatic assumption that every single foreign client being dealt with has a lack of understanding of both the culture and the language.

No no no, I am not referring to the client being delt with, its the service provider themselves... The denial of service is because "I am scared because I don't speak English and I don't know what you are up to"... not "I don't think they know our language and culture"....

As per James, a lot of these fear was from an assumption that foreigner will be loud and noisy, they bring home different girls 4 times a day.. again, all assumptions, mostly hearsay...

I have a book at home that talks about life after Japan surrendered during WWII, I think a lot of the current mentality was "carry over" from similar thinking from that period. One of the chapter in that book talks about a Picture between taken of the US marine shaking hand with the emperor at the time, how people see the tall wide American overpowering an small short Emperor, American were viewed as beast, and families with daugthers were listening in closely to when the troops will land and they need to move north to the moutain and suburbs to avoid a run in with the American because they are on a mission to rape all the Japanese women.....

Anyways, I will see if i remember to dig up that book and share a few interesting articles with you guys on a separate thread, but I think a lot of the "avoidance" mentality came from that kind of media back in the days, much of it were not erased till even now....

I still don't know if I would classify this form of "fear" as racism, but I do see why others felt that way..

I don't think anyone's denying their problems. I'm certainly not denying they have a fish obsession. I just think that there could be a way around it.

It's the same thing. If a Foreigner can demonstrate that he is competent in Japanese, why does the Japanese service provider fear not speaking English (or other language)? It's an assumption that there will be some sort of miscommunication but if both parties can communicate than it shouldn't be a problem, but there are many cases where it is.

And the "fear" that Gaijin will wreck the apartment or whatever is not a legitimate reason. It's labeling the entire group of foreigners as, dare I say it, barbaric.

I never had any problem walking or cycling when I was in Japan, so I suppose I just interpret it differently. Some people see the bike bell ringing as a sound of aggression, to me it's just a helpful warning, and in my experience even if you dither about they tend to give pedestrians right of way or move onto the road.


Very very true. The penalties for drink driving in Japan are also harsher, I believe. Also an awful lot less people in Japan wear cycle helmets, even kids, so it's really unsafe to risk getting swiped by a car that doesn't give way. I mean, one of my sister's friends came off at 20mph, wearing a helmet and now has personality issues because the crash basically shook his brain up like a bowl of jelly.

The other thing about cycling on the roads in Japan is the roadside drains. Ok not an issue in town centres, but there were some near us in the 'burbs that were just bicycle death-traps especially after dark.

well then just tell them to bring you a menu in Japanese if you are so desperate to show off to other people that you have invested the time and speak their language.

or even better. stop bitching about pointless stuff - you can read it can't you? SO WHAT IS THE DAMN PROBLEM?! food doesn't taste the same if it is not spelled out in Japanese? :mad:

Does this reality really get you that hot because Japan isn't the perfect society you imagine it to be? :rolleyes:
Actually, the food might taste different because it's damn near impossible to read the menu and pronounce the food correctly if it's not at least in katakana (when ordering foreign food), so you may just end up not getting what you ordered :D

i have no bubble dreams about Japan and it's society and never will. only dream i have about Japan is finding some run-down looking, obscure ramen shop with the perfect noodles that will bring me to tears when i eat them :cool:
what gets me are annoying people who basically nitpick. specially the likes of you - obviously suffering from some sort of received attention deficiency. you feel the need to show everyone around you that you are BETTER that the rest of the gaijin - that is from where comes your menu bullshit. and that is annoying because any normal person would just STFU. :cool:

And you think this type of stereotyping doesn't exist outside of Japan? Its even far more vocal in North America.. I grew up with people making fun of Chinese driving, assuming that I can't speak English.....

I don't think it's different socially, but in most other first world countries you have the right to complain and have that complaint heard. Try pulling some crap like denying a minority person an apartment in the US based on their race and see what happens.

How is being racially profiled bullshit? How is that nitpicking? It's hardly an attention deficiency to expect to be treated equally in a first world country, and being dealt with in the language of the country you're in. When you find that perfect ramen shop, don't be mad when you're handed an English menu because you can't read Japanese, and a fork because you can't use chopsticks, and a "thank you" in English when you leave because you can't speak Japanese.

lol. in my country every single tourists expects us to speak english. italians usually want me to speak also italian. well most of us do speak english.
i imagine all of the tourists would be pissed off i people here would only speak latvian.

and yes those are too high expectations you have for being treated equally. you are visiting a country in which 99.999% of all gaijin speak other languages. only that 0.001% knows japanese or even less. so, if you had to bet on a horese? which one would you chose? the one with 99.999% chance? well if you are not a retard you will. so will businesses who are interested in their client satisfaction.

I don't know how you do things in your country, but in my country, we address people in our own language first, and adjust ourselves if necessary. If a hispanic looking man walked into my store, I wouldn't racially profile him and immediately start speaking in Spanish first without even seeing if he spoke English first. For all I know, he might not speak a lick of Spanish. Where you live seems pretty backwards.

I'm not saying it's wrong to use English if the customer has proven himself incompetent in the language. But only after rather than racially profiling.

I just have to say that I hate this sort of argument. As though by pointing out there is bad elsewhere that somehow legitimises or excuses bad stuff occurring somewhere else. I mean in China you can be jailed for having opinions that the government doesn't agree with. Does that mean that it would be ok if something similar happened in Japan? No of course not.
From time to time there are incidents in Australia that are racially motivated. Does that mean that no Australian can ever be critical of racism outside of their country? No of course not.
As far as I'm concerned things like racism are universal. Every country has it. Most countries at least in legislation have laws to protect people from it. One issue I've always had with Japan is that there is very little legislative protection against discrimination and racism for non-Japanese residents and citizens.

The UN has expressed concerns over this numerous times. This from wiki

Lack of legislation allows discrimination to continue and actually somewhat legitimises it.

Well, i wasn't justifying it, and again, I don't consider it a Racist remark, just generalize.. you are not wrong, just because something happen in another country doesn't mean that it should elsewhere.. .and i am not saying that its right to not rent an apartment to a foreigner, just that I understand why....

We are getting way off topic.......

Well all the racism stuff aside I might add another thing I love about Japan. I like Nyororin loved the safety aspect. It's sort of hard to describe to people who have never lived in such a place what it's like to live without fear of crime. I know there's some crime in Japan but in a small country town in Hokkaido it was practically non existent. In all the years I was there I never heard of one house being broken into, not one car being stolen. Not one mugging. I never locked the doors on my house and rarely locked the car. To live without any fear whatsoever of any sort of crime is pretty amazing. Not too many places in the world where it's possible.