So tonight I went to the local Daiei building to buy shoes with support because apparently all of a sudden I am 100.
A bit of back story here: I am one of two white people in my neighborhood. The only other foreigners are Indian. While upstairs in the 100 yen store, a lady was in front of me talking the clerk's ear off and buying 100 things. My turn came and I purchased my seven items. Meanwhile, this woman (she was older maybe 50s) had forgotten her 101st item and ended up behind me.
More back story is needed here. I have 8 tattoos. Some are large. So in addition to being a white female in Japan this makes me stand out even more (as if the first two didn't make me black sheep enough). During this recent shopping trip only a few (and not even my biggest ones) were visible.
The super shopper who was now behind me noticed my tattoo and by all accounts she said 「怖い」 which if you don't speak Japanese means "scary."
As an aside, this is the tattoo she saw:
Now I get stared at all the time by older folks. There may never be a way to escape that. The youngns love my tattoos and often want to touch them oddly enough. (By the way, they just feel like skin unless you've had a shitty artist.) But for a complete stranger to say this to me in public was quite rude and something I've never experienced before. Now there is a chance she said かわいい which sounds very similar and means "cute" but I doubt it. My feet may be going but I'm pretty sure my hearing is good. Plus, it's not really cute.
Another aside is that this is meant to be read separately but most Japanese want to try and read it together as that's the way to read Chinese characters in Japanese. In Chinese, these characters mean 希 hope and 忠 loyalty. They also exist in Japanese but more characters are needed to make them say the same thing. Together in Japanese they don't mean anything.
From this point she proceeded to ask me if it was Japanese and I said in English: "Chinese." She said some other things but I was feeling awkward and uncomfortable so I practically ran out of there.
Of course, not five minutes later I HAD to run into her downstairs in the drink aisle. She gave an "ah!" like "I know you!" Great. She began to speak to me first about fruit flavored water which she called juice. She was sad because it was all gone. After that, we talked about cheap bottled water. Then came the standard barrage of questions:
What country are you from?
Where in America?
How long have you lived in Japan?
Do you live near here?
What do you like about Japan?
REALLY PURIKURA? What about anime?
How about manga?
Are those [tattoos] from manga?
Oh they are from books?
Japanese books? Do you like Japanese books? Anime? Manga?
Oh English books!
Okay some of those questions aren't standard. This experience was awkward but hilarious especially her trying to get me to profess my love for anime/manga. I'm not sure how old she thought I was. Also, I have no idea how to say in Japanese that I used to like anime but not so much any more. (Sailormoon fans out there?) It's easier just to say no.
She also said many times how impressed she was with my excellent Japanese after only one year. (Maybe trying to make up for calling my tattoo "scary".)
Aside from how awkwardly hilarious this experience was, I was grateful that it happened. It gave me a chance to speak Japanese in a real situation with no one there to help me. (In case you're wondering, yes I did speak to her in Japanese on the 1st floor.) If you've ever even read this blog you know that just jumping in there and speaking is difficult for me (now there's something that's really scary). All in all, it wasn't the worst experience I've ever had in Japan.
I have a wrist tattoo, simple writing. But all my Japanese Friends have touched it at least once or twice. I've never experienced this outside of Japan, so strange! (｡-_-｡)
ReplyDeleteAt least the Lady didn't seem too offensive afterwards. I've had elderly women go out their way to avoid walking near me. It's comical actually so I can't find it offensive.