The end of the year in Japan is a lot like the rest of the year in Japan: there is a whole lot of drinking that goes on. Rather than the bland label of "nomikai" on normal drinking gatherings, the end of the year is filled with "bounenkai" - end of the year parties. During bounenkai, you're supposed to air both those things you've left incomplete and those things you've happily accomplished in order to finish off the year with everything off your chest, I guess. Kind of like Festivus, just without the aluminum pole and feats of strength. I had bounenkai three out of the last four days. Saturday with the Fulbright Alumni Association Sendai (basically an expensive lobster lunch with wine and old Japanese guys who were funnier than expected). In attendance were host dad's one and two, UCSB Professor Stuart Streichler, hapless, innappropriate, horny loser Bill, and please-allow-me-to-shove-my-idealist-politics-down-your-throats-even-at-this-festive-event Elaine (that Scottish woman). So basically every character from my early days in Sendai. Monday saw a more enjoyable bounenkai, though it created regrets: I finally joined my advisor Kamoike Sensei's senior seminar, and I was able to realize that it was indeed something I should have been a part of since October. Most of his kids showed up for the party, involved about 13 girls and 2 guys. Everyone was really, really nice and six of us stayed out later to do more drinking and karaoke til the whee hours (somehow, everytime I go out I end up at this karaoke joint in the center of town called Song Park, or SonPa as the kiddies call it. The place is to Sendai what Denny's is to Yorba Linda). The kids in the class were great - they want me to start coming around to class in January though the semester ends at the beginning of February, and they were able to switch conversation topics from sex and drinking to politics and the Japanese employment system at the drop of a hat. And do so in an intelligent, informed, and opinionated manner. It was the first time it was proved to me that being smart and being a "guy's guy" are not necessarily mutually exclusives at Tohoku University. After getting home at around 4:30 AM, I woke up for afternoon class and then taught Takako and Mayumi english for a couple hours before kicking out Bounenkai 3. Joined by a third girl named Hina, we hit up the Italian restaurant our buddy Masayuki works at for pasta, pizza, and drinks. We then hit another bar for more drinks, shot some pool and played video games for a couple hours, drank sake and ate gyouza (dumplings), and then headed home at 3:30 AM. The girls had class at 8:30 AM the next day.
So with parties going at a clip of about six nights a week, it would only make sense that I would leave the country today to come to Korea again, which is where I'm typing this from. I'm visiting Hyunjoo for Christmas, and after we had a bit of a dramatic weekend, things are on course again. And it's nice to be back in Seoul again - looks like 5 days of heart-burn inducing meals! Unfortunately, it is bitterly cold here (even colder than Sendai, which I thought was pretty freaking cold). Tomorrow's high/low for Seoul is 1C/-8C. It's the type of cold where everytime you come to a door, you pause for a second to gather your thoughts, say a quick prayer, calm your breathing, and recognize feeling in your extremities for possibly the last time before bursting through to the other side. Apparently, Sendai only gets worse than this in January and February. Tonight, we braved the elements to take in a late showing of The Incredibles with Hyunjoo's little sister. I've wanted to see the movie for awhile, and hesitated seeing it in Japan because (1) I'm pretty sure all showings are dubbed so that little kids can go see it, since reading subtitles is pretty hard in Japanese (2) watching movies in Japan is usually about twice as expensive as seeing a movie in the states (and I'm talking a ticket stub at a place like the Block where the student discount is $8). The movie was awesome - just brilliantly written. It wasn't as funny as I expected it to be, but it's cultural swats, both referential and critical in nature, are timely and well-executed. One that occurred to me in particular is something Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi might want to listen to: that sometimes some people are born more gifted than other people, and cheating to get there doesn't really get you anywhere. In these days of sophisticated performance enhancement on the one hand and mediocrity-baiting self-esteem enhancement (you know, whereby every kid gets recognized and no one gets lower than a C) on the other hand, it's nice to see something deliver the message that sometimes some people are naturally better at some things than other people, and that makes life interesting and that makes people special. And it's nice to see that something be a family movie. And it's also refreshing to see a family movie where characters actually die, and often do so in violent, fiery explosions. Brad Bird was right when he said Pixar isn't a typical Hollywood Studio. Go Pixar.
Todays List brings the negativity: The Top 5 Most Annoying Foreign Populations I've Come Across in Japan.
Japan is a pretty homogenous country, but foreigners still manage to be really annoying consistently. One racial group even managed to make the top 5 TWICE (you know who you are). Now, I know I too am a foreigner, but I at least have Japanese blood in my body, and some foreigners aren't annoying. Just these ones:
(5) Russian Women: barely cracking the top 5 because they are a pretty sad sight, these women, presumably poor Russians in a previous incarnation, are basically here to play satisfy-my-white-fetish to Japanese sugar daddies. You see them strutting around confidently with shopping bags on one arm and some middle-aged Japanese dude on the other arm. They are usually leggy and blonde, but not good looking since Japanese guys either have no taste in white women or have to take whatever they can get (see my apple/orange metaphor in the first place entry below). One of my Australian friends lives in an area near Tokyo that has so many of these women, little kids on the street tease her for being Russian! As hard as these women try to look like wealthy contemporary model-types, there is always something about their stiffly done makeup, poor dye-jobs, and slightly dated outfits that is vaguely mid-90s Eastern European (and I don't even know what that looks like! But when I imagine it, it's what these chicks are wearing). Ouch.
(4) European Dudes (especially Eastern European): I can speak English. I can teach English. Most European dudes can also "speak" English* and attempt to "teach" English*. But they always get those quotes and those asterisks, because it's not real English. It's broken communication English. But they can still charge premium prices for it. They have their customers paying Benz money for a Kia. It might get you around, but it's a pretty shitty piece and you're probably going to need some major repairs. I've heard far too many of these people claiming to teach English, and quite frankly as a native English speaker and English major, it makes me a little queasy to think they're getting paid for it what they describe as "And zen I have zee, uhhhh, zee part-time job, uhhhh, as za English teacher?"
(3) The Africans: In most cities here, there are areas where black guys mill around outside hip hop clothing stores trying to get you to go in by annoying you with broken Japanese. Interesting tactic. But still, they wouldn't be quite so annoying to me except they are guys from like Nigeria copping their clothing style, walking style, standing style, even their hard facial expressions from American hip-hop. Now granted, hiphop is now a global culture, and all people should be allowed to take part. But these guys just seem like their trying to pull a fast one on everyone here since I'm sure everyone figures they're Americans. And that's somehow offensive to the American parts of me.
(2)The Chinese: First, there are the Chinese that populate the red light districs of Japan who, like the Russian girls, are 50% really sad to see and 50% really annoying to see. One can only be followed by a Chinese girl yelling out "Massaji?? Dou desu ka" before he starts slapping hos. Then there are the Chinese kids in my Japanese classes (not all, just most) who have the worst Japanese pronunciation this side of white Americans and enjoy randomly yelling answers out in class. Even when the teacher has directly asked another student, all the Chinese kids start yelling out answers immediately, whether they are correct or not. They even yell out answers to rhetorical questions. My counterattack? Yelling shit out myself early and often.
(1) White American Dudes: Anyone who knows me saw this one coming from a mile away. Some might have even thought the entire top 5 would be this group over and over. And of course not all are bad. But too many are here for rather thin reasons, and the biggest reason usually starts with "Japanese" and ends with "girl". And too many speak with appallingly stilted accents and innappriopriately high confidence. I'm not sure which kind is worse: the long-haired, poorly dressed manga/anime/video game loser, the Japanese-culture obsessed perpetual dork who would never get play in the states but has a shot here, or the loud-mouth, cocky frat boy. Couple it with Japanese people's appalling taste in white people (and vice versa; really, it's like asking the apple inspector to monitor the oranges for a day) and you have one bad situation.
