The Big Japanese Person*

The week this week started with me watching a Japanese Cult comedy on DVD which Japanese Bob had lent me. “Dai Nihon-Jin” which literally translates as “Big Japanese Person” is a fly on the wall mockumentary about a man who is turned into a giant whenever a huge monster attacks Japan. The DVD featured no subtitles or dubbing track unfortunately, so 95% of the dialogue got past me, but as I`ve mentioned before the majority of Japanese comedy is physical, so it was still awesome to watch.

The highlight of the movie was a fight scene between the “Dai Nihon-Jin” and another giant monster with a human head and a hand for a body in downtown Sakae, Nagoya. Lots of the places I go every week were featured in the fight scene (including one scene where the Sunshine Sakae Ferris wheel was used like a hamster wheel by the hand body thing) so it was really cool to see.

On the Saturday night I went out to Kanayama, just outside Sakae to meet my friend Tomomi for an international party thing at a local Izakaya. Bob came along as well as Justin the Canadian. I met some really cool people there including one Italian who used to work at the “Italia Village” (a sort of Italian theme park at Nagoya port which featured loads of Italian restaurants, shops and Gondolier rides. It closed down a couple of months ago however, leaving a large number of unemployed Italians in Nagoya). He used to be a Gondolier driver but was now without a job. He didn’t seem too down about it though, and was a proper winner.

I also met loads of Chinese people and some other Americans. The food was pretty awesome, starting with a massive salad, and moving onto Nabe`s, Gratins, Spaghetti`s, Fried Chicken, Chips, Tofu, and ending with some lush cakes. After this most of the people went their separate ways, but me, Bob and Justin went onto The Hub in Sakae to neck a few more.

After a couple of hours Justin went home as he had to be up for work, but me and Bob decided we wanted to keep the night going.

So we went onto Lush, a hip hop club. The place was expensive and a bit too packed, so after about half an hour we decided to leave. With nowhere else to go, Bob suggested a bar a friend of his owned called “Goat”.

This was a good 10 minutes walk into another red light districty area, but eventually we happened upon the building. The bar was on the 5th floor, and along the same corridor were a variety of hostess bars with girls waiting outside to welcome you in. We went into “Goat” however, and Bob was given a really warm welcome by both of the barmen, one of which was the owner.

This bar also had a no foreigner policy due to the vast Brazilian and Phillipino population in this slightly dodgy corner of Sakae. Although this blatant racism upsets me, over time I have come to understand it. The majority of crimes/anti-social behavior is committed by non-Japanese in my experience, and indeed everyone else I have approached on the subject, has said the same. Whilst I don’t support these anti-foreigner policies, I understand why many Japanese feel like this. It is not necessarily a hatred of other cultures or a fear of loss of national identity so much as it is a simple mathematical security issue. If you don’t let foreigners in then you wont have as many stabbings or robberies in the place. A simple comparison of the security measures employed for “Gaijin clubs”, and Japanese only clubs enforces this idea.

That being said I think the Japanese in general do go way overboard with their representations in the media, and the way they often treat foreigners. I have experienced racism on a fairly minor scale a few times, although it has usually been laughable more than offensive (the idea of anyone being racist to a white Englishman is so alien to me that it does become a joke), but some of my friends have had really upsetting experiences which is totally uncalled for.

So my conclusion on this subject is to respect the Japanese who want to have these views, but to keep my own mind open. After all its not my country so why should they comply with what I consider to be fair.

Anyway the bar staff were really nice to me despite my racial inferiority, and me and Bob sat at the bar. The room was very small, but for a Japanese style 1 room bar it was kind of big, with 2 sofas and about 8 seats at the bar. There were about 3 other people sitting at the bar and people came and left as the night went on. On the TV screens dotted around the bar, “The Shawshank Redemption” was being played muted, with Japanese subtitles. We were given free drinks due to the fact that Bob knew the owner which was cool, and we sat and talked with them for hours.

By this stage I had the rubbish combination of having sobered up enough to be self conscious about speaking Japanese, and felt rough enough to be unable to get my brain thinking clear enough to understand what everyone was talking about. Time and again I had to get people to repeat stuff slowly so I could join in the conversation which was really frustrating, but for the most part I had a good time here.

The bar also had a Karaoke machine which myself and some of the other drinkers indulged, myself doing classics which I hoped would appeal to the other clientele including The Beatles “Let It Be”, and Monty Python`s “Always Look on the Bright Side” (well actually that was just for Bob who is a huge Monty Python fan).

At one point some guy came in and sat at one of the sofas and ordered a bottle of wine, which he drank with one of the barmen who joined him to indulge in conversation etc. In fact there were a couple of other people who had gone drinking on their own, and this coupled with my experience in Hiroshima enlightened me to this part of Japanese culture which doesn’t really exist in the UK (or as far as I know), that of the lone drinker. The barstaff really looked after them, and I was well impressed with the service shown. At one point they ordered food from a Chinese takeaway for him, and the 2 guys who had loads of energy took it in turns to sit with him.

After meeting and chatting with people for ages, The Shawshank Redemption began for the third time, and I decided I should get home ASAP. I had to be up the next day, so needed all the sleep I could get. Whilst I hadn’t spent a penny at the bar, and Bob had already settled our bill, the barstaff still didn’t want to see us go and kept talking to us. Even after we left, the owner guy (called Daisuke) came down in the lift with us and stood outside talking to us for another 15 or 20 minutes.

I eventually got home around 8 and went to sleep. When I woke up I got on a train to get to the ACC school in Anjo where my friend Tracey was holding a fundraiser for a Peruvian charity where she was going to volunteer in a few weeks. This was in the shape of a photographic exhibition as she was a keen photographer. When I got there it was pouring with rain (its currently the rainy season in Japan which sucks, its like a monsoon sometimes!), and there were about 10 people in the Anjo school where I work on Fridays.

The exhibition was going to be running for 4 hours but because I had gotten up late due to the previous nights events, I just got there for the last hour when most of the people had been and gone although there were 2 Peruvians who Tracey had met at a language exchange program, and had lots of interesting stories about Peru which was really cool. After looking around for a bit I bought one of Traceys photos of a Japanese shrine which was really awesome and came with a free frame which was cool. After an hour we all helped to clean up which took a while, but was quite good fun.

After that the 2 Peruvians (I forgot their names) gave me a lift to the station which was really nice of them, and I embarked on my epic journey back to Nisshin. I got back around 10 and tried to get a regular nights sleep.

Ok that’s about it for this week. Sorry about the lack of pictures but despite bringing my camera on the night out I completely forgot to use it except on that one photo of the salad in the Izakaya. Still, to try and make up for it Ill leave you with a trailer for the one and only “Dai Nihon-Jin”.

Peace out

Jack

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=XF0lAX0LPlM&feature=related