Japanese people wear boxers on their heads and socks on their arms.
I bought a Wii when it came over here and so I’ve been playing the occasional game on it. I wanted to try Red Steel, but I certainly wasn’t going to pay full price for it (the reviews for it weren’t so good). Well, last month it went down to 3000yen and I decided to buy it; this turned out to be a stupid move as I found it for 2000yen just a week or so later. Anyways…
I played through the whole game in very little time. An hour here, an hour there and the game was finished. The verdict? Aiming is quite difficult, but the game is not. The cut scenes (unskippable) are boring and the story is a throwaway. However, there is one really annoying thing in this game that happens in Japan to pretty much every foreigner that stays for longer than a couple days.
In the game, you are a white man dating a Japanese woman. Most of the people you talk to in the game are Japanese and most of them share the same sentiment: non-Asians lack a cerebral cortex and are covered in sores (or something of that manner). They don’t come out and say it, but you know that’s what they mean.
… Actually, they don’t say anything like that at all, but they say similar things. They are amazed that you can use a sword (Jesus only bestowed that gift to Asians), they are sickened that you fight/defeat them, and they are disgusted for having someone not Japanese be associated in any way with a traditional Japanese group. And the thing is, this shit doesn’t just happen in a video game. Unfortunately, too many Japanese people feel/think the same way about foreigners that live/work in Japan. It’s sad, but also pretty damn annoying.
The number of times I (or someone else I know) have had a Japanese person be amazed at something simple I can do is mind numbing.
Them: “Wow. You can use chopsticks?”
Me: “Of course. It’s not like it’s a task that is impossible for me to do.”
Them: “Sugoi!”
Me: “ぎゃああああああ！” 腹切 (cue me slicing open my stomach and my intestines spilling out)
My intestines spill out way too often. The conversation (or a derivative of it) usually is about chopsticks, speaking/reading Japanese (reading Japanese is hard, but anyone can learn it, not just Japanese people), wearing Japanese clothes, or eating Japanese food. It can really be boiled down to this: some Japanese people are amazed that anyone else can do the things that they do. Why? Because those things are harder to do? Because non-Japanese people are incompetent at tasks such as these? I have no idea, but it’s racist and bigoted.
Maybe I should turn the tables.
Me: “Wait. You can use a spoon?”
Them: “Of course I can use a spoon you retarded monkey.”
Me: “But it’s not Japanese. How is this mathematically possible!? You will cause a collapse of the space time continuum if you continue using it.”
Them: “What the hell are you babbling about?”
Me: “I’m just trying to show you in my own odd way that you’re kind of being an ass.”
Them: “Oh. Whoops. Thanks.”
I doubt the outcome of that table-turning conversation would be the same if it happened in real life. At least I can dream.
And here are some links.
This post was brought to you by the character ‘/’.
They’d probably just laugh and assume it was a joke if you questioned them about using a spoon. They love spoons…using them to eat italian pasta since that’s how you’re supposed to do it.
I also wonder why they think it’s so strange we can do Japanese things. Being of Asian descent, I found it strange that some of them were surprised to find that I ate rice everyday and could use chopsticks. Not -everyone- was surprised, but more often than not, I’d have to say ‘Well yeah…I’m vietnamese, I do this stuff too…’
Haha sometimes I’m surprised that anyone else in the world can speak english. It’s not easy! Maybe reading it is, but most of the people in USA can’t even speak it correctly!
http://www.chasethegaijin.com, hkw do you do it?