Kedvesem

Hmm.

This is quite difficult for me to answer, as I have lived in Japan for over 25 years. This is what I know best, despite being a "gaijin". When I arrived in Japan so long ago, the number of foreigners was still low enough that strangers would try to sneak a little touch of my sister's blonde hair.

Now it is not so extreme, of course, but the stares still happen. Yesterday, even, as my darling and I were walking back to the station, a girl stared at us to the point she stepped on her own dog.

People here will stare, even now. They point less, but it still happens. The "gaijin da!" (it's a [derogatory term for] foreigner) still follow us everywhere. But for the very reason that we are foreigners, we will get excluded. There are still many places that will not rent to foreigners. And this is legal. It's simply the way it is.

Japan is definitely, as Mordwyr put it, a place of contrasts. Despite the exclusion and despite the fact that being foreigners means we will always be outsiders, the busybodies of the neighbourhood always watch us. Like hawks. They know and comment on, say, the amount and type of trash we throw away in a given week. They know what sort of juice we drink. This, too, is the way it is.

If you don't mind institutionalized discrimination and the close observation of strangers accompanied by being ignored for being foreign, it's actually cool. I don't mind these things, so I have happily lived here for 25+ years. Many foreigners I know, however, find that these things gradually weigh on them, and eventually they become bitter toward Japan.

Lisnaholic

"Gaijin da!" Well, you've taught me some Japanese, Kedvesem. Thanks! Sounds like you have adapted well to the in-between status of being both a foreigner and a local.

Of the things you mention, the two that surprised me most were the legal discrimination against renting to foreigners, and the spying of the neighbours.

I'm also a gaijin da; here they say "gringo", though to their credit, never to my face. (Instead, I hear the mechanic out the back calling, "The gringo's here to collect his car!") In fact I'm jolly well British, and many Mexicans have quite a high regard for Brits; at school they learn about the industrial revolution and their own Spanish heritage, which makes them pro-European.

^ This really struck a chord with me, Kedvesem! I've been in the same Mexican city for about 24 yrs, and not being a particularly sociable type, I like the way that being a foreigner allows me to maintain a certain distance. As a foreigner it's understandable if I leave the party early or indeed, don't bother going.

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