Happy Wedding Anniversary!!

[Kuroyama]

Couldnt wait to post this one...

For those of you who dont know me, Im Black. I have a Japanese wife. I speak the language at a level people (other than me) call fluent. I speak well NOT because of my hardheaded wife who doesnt speak Japanese in the house, but because of my alcohol swilling Japanese brethren that helped me get through college. By the time I met my wife I had already been speaking the language for 7 years... Now, Im giving this information to you because I need for you to put this image in your head. A Black man thats bigger than about half the NFL, and a very tall Japanese lady. (Nowhere near my height, but tall enough to surprise people)

So the wife and I go on a trip. Its our wedding anniversary so we decide that in addition to diamonds (yeah, we all knew she was a little too cooperative when I brought that PS3 and 5 new games...and a new Logitech steering wheel... into the house) we would take a trip to a small mountain town called Beppu.

Beppu is famous for its hot springs. We took a 3 hour train ride to the north end of Kyushu. From the station the people from the ryokan (traditional travel inn) came to pick us up in the car. Very quaint. Very lovely...

And also the site of this years convention for the Nihon Zenkoku Uyoku!

(Thats it, that was the punch line.)

For those that didnt get it, the "Uyoku" is the Japanese far right. The US equivalent of this story would be (Same big Black guy, married to tall blond lady... taking a trip to the deep south... to a town where a national klan rally was being held... in 1975.)

[atlasien]

Hello Kuroyama! You might want to check out these two videos, especially if you are "often chided for Hollywood good looks". The guy is a relative of an online friend from another forum.

http://www.accesseonline.com/sij/vids/mlijlancelee.mov

http://www.accesseonline.com/sij/index.php?vc=leebrothers

[nskripchun]

hahaha, Nihon Zenkoku Uyoku... crazy right wingers. When I think of the crazy Japanese far-right, I always remember that Pulitzer-winning photo of Asanuma, the head of the 1960s Japanese Socialist party, getting assassinated by a right wing, emperor-worshipping wacko.

BTW, your wife must be pretty kick-ass. She let you buy a PS3 and 5 games! If that isn't love, I don't know what is, bro.

[cattygurl]

Nihon Zenkoku Uyoku...

GAAAHHH

Crazy f'in bastards. They give Japan a bad name. Fuckers. They sometimes make me so embarassed to be Japanese.

[Kuroyama]

Nskrip

Son, 9 years ago I would sung the praises of my wife... today I just say "futsuu", which is another way to say "normal/average". You may not have caught the part where she got diamonds... I KNEW when I got that PS3, that I was gonna haveta pay on the back end!

Coupla things helped me considerably.

1) We had a very good experience with the PS2 as a household device. It was our first DVD player. It paved the way for PS3 acceptance.

2) the day I bought our PS3, people were mobbing each other to get one (most would/could not) in Tokyo. She had been home watching the commotion on the news when I casually walked back into the house with one under my arm. She asked if I had any trouble, or been pushed or bothered. Then the clips of Tokyo action came back on TV. Retailers yelling through bullhorns, thousands of people shoving and pushing... But here in Miyazaki crowds were LIGHT. as in about 10 people. Those 10 all had preorders.

So the exclusivity of it curried a lot of favor with her.

(also...I had 5 games by Feb... when it came out I only bought Resistance and Gundam)....took back Gundam...it wasnt that good

[nekohead]

I just want to tell you, GOSH your one lucky man to be LIVING in Japan.
I miss it.
I will trade you :)
You take Hawaii and I can have Japan.

[Kuroyama]

Trust me, you dont want THIS part of Japan. Truly the sticks. People here have little to no tolerance for Asian foreigners. They are only a LITTLE more accepting of non-whites...

In general I frighten people when I approach. Some people are in such shock that they cannot even comprehend JAPANESE when its spoken to them. There are many to be sure, who are cool and down with people of other cultures. But too many of them just fetishize and have no real respect. The others and saddeningly few by way of comparison to those who are not cool.

But its not much different back in the states is it?

Also... having a mixed child of Asian and Black origins in HAWAII of all places... sounds like the most logical solution on the planet. You would NOT want to have such a child here. The most positive response would be from people yelling KAWAIIIIIII! and trying to pet your child as though s/he were an animal. The worst case would be when the other children treat him/her like one.

I know a family of blond haired blue eyed people that had to move last month. The husband spoke better Japanese than myself, but the wife and kids did not. They werent treated poorly out of animosity...but rather, poorly because most people here are not taught how to treat people who are different with respect.

Remember Japan is about uniformity. When you dont conform (A Black child, or a blond/blue eyed child does NOT conform) then things will not be as easy for you. People will stare. Some people will simply not know how to act.

Keep in mind all of this negativity lessens considerably if you live in a metropolitan area like Tokyo or Osaka...but its still there to a degree. I just went to Nagasaki this week... I still got the stares and shock. In some cases people will just outright speak ill of you (Thinking that you dont know the language...)

[minbo]

A friend of a friend who is black and married to a Japanese woman moved to Japan (not a Japanophile, doesn't know anything about Japan or speak Japanese, not an Asianphile that I can detect, seems like a normal fellow) as an ex-pat (IT work). He mentioned that while he faces racism there, everyday life was easier there than the US, because the racism is more xenophobia to anything non-Japanese than the race based oppression he felt daily in the US... I don't know if you feel similarly?

[Lum]

Congratumalations Kuroyama!

[nekohead]

:(
That is Worse for you when you understand them. But, even if you lived in a Black area. You would still have some HATE coming at you. I am so sorry that you still have to deal with that. But, here in Hawaii...." I still have to deal with the CRAZY Navy non talking people everywhere I go. At least I do kind of fit in on-line :) . Also, with the few folks that remember me from the Post office from the many bases I worked.

[Kuroyama]

Minbo

sounds like a very similar case to mine. there are a couple of points about the racism here that really get under my skin.

1) It didnt start here. Sure, there is xenophobia here. Its more directed at anything "other". That means people from external groups, external nations, etc. But the really nasty stuff...came from Europe. Especially the stuff about Black people being less-than. There was a really popular doll here for awhile based on Little Black Sambo. A Golliwog that everybody swore was the cutest most harmless thing going, and they couldnt understand WHY anyone would could should find offense with it! We can thank the British for introducing them to that monstrosity.

2) Understanding that it didnt start here. It really gets to me that ugly racist ideas that didnt even start in this country persist for generation and are handed down from fathers to sons from mothers to daughters like some stinking pathogen introduced by nasty Europeans that didnt even wash their hands after using the bathroom.

3) The worship of all things caucasian. From the models seen throughout Asian beauty magazines... to the big posters of white people for English schools. Its as if caucasian was the standard of beauty. I was told a story from a Mother who took her daughter to Disney Sea. The daughter had a major crying fit because she couldnt be a mermaid. When asked WHY she couldnt be a mermaid, the little girl announced that all mermaids were white! (indeed, from Ariel, down to the girls the hired for Disneyland - IN JAPAN - everyone was white. The little girl was not.)

I may also have swallowed the red pill from this website. I never read about colonial mentality, or white privilege until I started posting here. Now its that much easier to spot. Perhaps ignorance is bliss?

I think your friend is still caught in The Matrix.

[Ike]

I may also have swallowed the red pill from this website. I never read about colonial mentality, or white privilege until I started posting here. Now its that much easier to spot. Perhaps ignorance is bliss?

Glad to know I'm not the only person who feels that way. I wouldn't trade pills for anything.