The summers bustle with rice, baby's breath, and millions of dragonflies in the paddies. The mountain water is so clean it almost tastes sweet, and people keeps tight tabs on the comings and goings of each other.
It's one of the most densely alive places I've experienced, with food growing everywhere, even in the cracks of the driveway, and mountain creature sounds wafting about.
Heck, the place even casually boasts village remains dating all the way back to the mesolithic and the second oldest swamp in Japan.
I wouldn't say it's any more or less real Japanese than other places here, but it's definitely singular!
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsophila_paniculata
EDIT: Fixed typo in the latin.
When that cooperative necessity permeates every part of your life, it's pretty natural to be slow to trust. Villages already have enough oddball characters that they don't really care about a random foreigner so much as they care whether you are dependable and trustworthy.
1. it doesn't exist
2. it does exist, and here is why it's acceptable!
The third one, which is the american response (it does exist and it is unacceptable) I haven't heard yet.
I've also heard people with darker complexions get an entirely different treatment - as in, it's not just foreigner but also, what kind.
Small town living is kind of a different kettle of fish though. There can be lots of committees, local rules and association fees you're expected to take part in. Lots of these aren't really forced or regulated "by law", but someone from there is just expected to play into them. Lots of younger Japanese people and foreigners move there, learn about these and find them unbearable -and if you don't play ball you can be treated badly.
In rural areas though the main thing for foreigners is that you'll kind of become a town character "foreigner-san". Kind of unavoidable when you're the only foreign face many of these people will have ever met.
I think some foreigners have this dream if they assimilate enough people will just pretend they're not a foreigner anymore, which personally I think is unrealistic and silly - you are foreign. The truly happy people here find a way to integrate while coming to peace with the fact they're obviously different.
This was eighteen years ago, and I hope nothing has changed in Japan.
This was eighteen years ago, and I hope nothing has changed in Germany.
It is very important to not be extreme when dealing with human ignorance. For mild cases of discrimination, especially those coming from fear and ignorance, engaging in full confrontation is not necessarily the most effective strategy to reduce said discrimination. It might actually increase it.
Now if faced with hate speech, that's a much higher degree. That needs a different strategy to reduce it.
But unless you are looking at actual segregation and genocide, dropping a Nazi accusation is hardly constructive.
Anyways, a "no whites" sign is definitely "actual segregation" and I'm not going to debate it or any apologia (which is what your comment is).
We grew up in this small town all seeing each other naked; for outsiders to come in and disrupt their `normal`, would be disrespectful to their culture.
My native partner and I eventually found a large enough / open enough spa which allowed us both in without concern (we just had to travel more, which was fine/informative; and promise not to "be disrespectful" // fuck).
Definitely discrimination against non-Japanese might still be common in less-urban areas ... yet your "rewording" my comment to be Nazi-themed is (by your own perogative) just another unrelated confirmation of Godwin's Law.
Yeah, I workshopped it with "Irish need not apply" but it just didn't hit the same.
What do you think about some of the religious communes / islands which do not allow women, outright, e.g. Okinoshima Island; Mount Athos.
What about places which exlude born-men?
Shouldn't tiny Nepal be allowed to massively restrict tourism/outsiders (should it so choose, as it does)?
Where/when are we going to be allowed to have these necessary conversations, without the spite/tone? People ought'ta be able to self-isolate, of their own choosing.
No shit you are completely different to 99% of the country culturally and visually and people treat you differently. Who would have guessed.