Japan - Lessons Learned

Just got back from Japan. Man, I miss it! It was such a fun country. It was everything I imagined it to be: fun lights and stores, Japanese language and culture, historical monuments of antiquity, and Samurai culture. The people were really nice and friendly to us foreigners. Japan is a very tourist friendly spot to hit up.

To start wrapping things up, here Mark's things I liked/learned about myself/disliked during my first trip to Japan:

1. Being Foreign is Okay!

Going into Japan, I knew this is not my culture, not my language. When I came to Korea, I knew that being half-Korean and my mother being Korean and growing up with a fair amount of Korean people in my life, I knew that I had some expectations and standards of this place. I sometimes, unfairly, put high standards to reach while here in Korea when it came to Korean speech, culture learning, and adapting to this place. I learned the hardway that I should not do that, because I ended up being hurt. When I went to Japan, the gloves came off, and I was a regular foreigner again.

But the fun part was that anything goes when you are in a country where you have no clue what you are doing: to try the language for the first time, to try to find your way when getting lost in a neighborhood, trying new things and food, and meet the locals when you are lost. I felt really relaxed during my time in Japan this week, simply because I had no real "standards" to adapt for one week. When I got back here in Korea today, I thought to myself: "Self, even though you are Korean (Indian) yourself, you are still American. You have not lived here before, so stop trying to assimilate so fast and just have fun." In other words, I learned on this trip to stop putting standards to fit in here, and just be me while slowly learning about life and culture here in Korea.

2. Being "Dark" is Cool in Japan (I was Japanese for one week!)

One thing that shocked me here in Japan was the amount of "dark people" I saw on the streets and other areas of life here in the Kansai Region (consiting of Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nara, and Wakayama). I remember one funny incident during the early months in teaching when my students in class 1-13 thought I was Japanese for some odd reason, which was really interesting. I thought I was too dark to be Japanese. Yet when I came to Osaka for the week, I saw many people, especially young people like me, who were really tan and just straight up dark-skinned! Some as dark as me. My friend Daniel told me that this is because the Japanese tan a whole lot quicker when they play outside more (which is natural for an island nation). I saw young men and boys who were really dark, and I even saw a flock of school girls walking on the subway who were chargrilled! I thought it was a cool sight that even though Japan is one of the most homogeneous nations on the planet, they at last have a diversity in "tan lines." It was really cool, I felt "in" in this country...it was really neat to be tan and dark and no one cares. I say this because in Korea, Koreans favor a lighter skin tone as more "beautiful." Here in Japan, the people tend to have a more varied look to them, in skin and fashion. One thing I noticed is that Japanese people tend to be more individualistic in their expression of themselves, and that includes their skin tones. One cool moment on the trip was to see a group of trendy girls on a subway, and one girl who I found very cute was also absolutely tan, and she looked really nice. Here in Korea, tan is not in all the way, but I thought, "God has given you tan and darkness, not for fashion reasons, but you are beautiful in His eyes."

I was even more surprised when a few people came up to me and thought I was Japanese. One funny incident when my friend and I were in Osakako Station in Osaka, after visiting the Kaiyukan Aquarium, while waiting outside the subway station for the train. There was one Japanese family looking to go back as well, but they were confused which train to go on. So guess who they asked? Me! "Demo, doko ni...?" (Ummm...where is this...) To which I immediately replied: "Nihonjin dewa-nai desu!" ("I'm not Japanese") She was like, "Ohh..."

A man in Kyoto walked up to my two friends (James and Ok'e) and I because he was curious about our American backgrounds, especially the fact that James is white, Ok'e is black, and I'm Asian. He immediately looked at me and said, "Ooohhh, there are many Japanese-Americans like you back in the United States." He thought I was Nisei! The funniest moment was when he walked up to James and just straight up said: "Ooooo...you're VERY FAT! YOU COULD BE SUMO WRESTLER!" I had to contain the laughter in me, and James, being stunned, could not help laugh either as he was the victim of Asian curiosity once again! (Asians can be very blunt about your appearance, like when I gained weight last year, my mom let me have it for good!)

So, I joked to my friends that I could easily fit into this place. But for once, it did felt kinda cool to be confused with this nation's citizens, so for one week, I was Japanese (don't tell my mother this!).

More on these lists tomorrow...I am so tired after a week of excitement.

Japan, I'll be back. Pictures will be posted on this sight and on my myspace page in the future, keep in touch.