[This is from a Japan Tribe thread called Weird Japanese Moments]
When I arrived in 1993, the vibe was a little different than it is now, ten years later.
One weekend shortly after entering the country, I went to downtown Osaka with no plan except to wander around. I followed one of the major venues leading away from Namba station, and after about 20 minutes of leisurely strolling through the most crowded pedestrian streets I'd ever seen, found myself at the famous Dotonboribashi, a slightly arched pedestrian-only bridge that crosses one of the many water channels that crisscross through downtown. Something had been not-quite-dawning on me since I'd arrived in Japan.
When I reached the highest point on the bridge, I had a chance to look even further down the road ahead. I'm an average height guy in the US, but I'm at least half-a-head taller than most local Japanese, usually taller. So watching the crowd flow around me, it was with suprising visual clarity that the dissonance finally sprang into relief: I was up to my chin in a Sea of Black Hair.
The suburb of L.A. that I grew up in was quite racially mixed, with a predominance of Japanese Americans. Where I'd grown up, I could see all kinds of races and ethnicities. In that one instant, I realized that Japan is made up of (wait for it) Japanese people.
Now I know that there are a number of Asian ethnicities that make up Japan, and that it's far from a monoculture, but at the time, having grown up around whites, asians, pacific-islanders, latinos, blacks, and any range in-between one can envisage, it was really strange to look ahead of me, and see nothing but black hair.
On a side note, in 2003, so many Japanese bleach their hair various shades of brown and blonde that the same view does not occur when standing in the same spot. I've checked.
When I arrived in 1993, the vibe was a little different than it is now, ten years later.
One weekend shortly after entering the country, I went to downtown Osaka with no plan except to wander around. I followed one of the major venues leading away from Namba station, and after about 20 minutes of leisurely strolling through the most crowded pedestrian streets I'd ever seen, found myself at the famous Dotonboribashi, a slightly arched pedestrian-only bridge that crosses one of the many water channels that crisscross through downtown. Something had been not-quite-dawning on me since I'd arrived in Japan.
When I reached the highest point on the bridge, I had a chance to look even further down the road ahead. I'm an average height guy in the US, but I'm at least half-a-head taller than most local Japanese, usually taller. So watching the crowd flow around me, it was with suprising visual clarity that the dissonance finally sprang into relief: I was up to my chin in a Sea of Black Hair.
The suburb of L.A. that I grew up in was quite racially mixed, with a predominance of Japanese Americans. Where I'd grown up, I could see all kinds of races and ethnicities. In that one instant, I realized that Japan is made up of (wait for it) Japanese people.
Now I know that there are a number of Asian ethnicities that make up Japan, and that it's far from a monoculture, but at the time, having grown up around whites, asians, pacific-islanders, latinos, blacks, and any range in-between one can envisage, it was really strange to look ahead of me, and see nothing but black hair.
On a side note, in 2003, so many Japanese bleach their hair various shades of brown and blonde that the same view does not occur when standing in the same spot. I've checked.
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