Racist intolerance

For various reasons, I am pissed off with Japan this week. It seems to be full of self-involved arses and tiresome mentalists who pester me for attention when it suits them, but tardily refuse to return the favour. It is also rammed with conceited racists. Some people defend Japan by saying that racism in Britain is far worse than it is here because it is more aggressive. I don`t pretend to compare myself to a victim of a violent attack, however, it is more prevalent and far more acceptable to be racist here. Some Japanese even expect pity as the foreigners scare them. That `foreigner` is an acceptable word and has even found its way into my vocabulary is a sign of how every day the attitudes towards non-Japanese are.

Extreme examples are male friends of mine having old men spit at their feet in the street. These are WWII generation men, so you can understand their anomosity to some extent, but not their expression of it. People stare and openly discuss you. A month or two ago, two Salarymen sat opposite me clearly discussing me and a Brazilian couple who were sat next to me. They found it very entertaining to see three of us in a row and when I stared back at the instigator, he just carried on and stared back at me. At the best you are a novelty act, at worst, a murderous circus freak. Women who travel abroad are known as `yellow cabs` as anyone can ride in them - obviously the minute their visa is stamped they are defiled by foreigners and become wanton sluts. I was told this by Yoshiko, who previously modelled how to use the word `hena` (strange) by saying `weird foreigners`.

After my experiences in Hiroshima, everything this week has lost proportion. My Japanese teacher refusing to accept that in Britain we don`t like warm food so not telling me how to say `this isn`t hot enough` (although there is an equivalent for drinks and bath water as they like to scorch off their skin in an onsen once in a while) really wound me up. She also told me it was impossible to grow my hair, rather than imagining she didn`t know the verb `to grow` could be used for hair (I can`t imagine what word they use here, but her suggestion was to get extensions).

Keisuke, the word otaku, brought up Sting and the Police and their ill-advised Japanese-language album track. Apparently the Japanese thought this incredibly stupid as they were just trying to be cool (they do have a point), but had used a stupid poem. When I asked if Sting using a respected poem would have made a difference, I eventually dragged it out of Keisuke that it was the Police not writing it themselves. He foolishly then asked my opinion of J-Pop. I don`t know any artists particularly, but have noticed that lots of them use broken English to make their songs more impressive. When I pointed out that they were doing the same thing, but by writing the English bits themselves were actually using incorrect English he spoke over me. Keisuke`s shutters go down whenever I say something he doesn`t like. Probably because I am foreign. My opinion only really counts when it contradicts the Philipino he works with.

To give them their due, they are also very classist and offensive to those Japanese they feel are beneath them. My Japanese teacher told me it would sound very strange if I said `thank you very much` in Japanese to a person in a shop. They are serving me, so I am above them and only need to say the equivalent of `cheers`. I told her in England we try treat everyone equally and be polite regardless of their job or position (maybe this is just me), but she insisted it would be bad Japanese and I ignored her.

When I get home, I am going to start a campaign to point out how brilliant Britain is. Our self-deprecating humour is getting us spat on by the rest of the world, while they are outright offensive, but claim to be polite. This is how they maintain their reputations. We need to fight back.