On 11/24/2003 4:42 PM, Raj Feridun wrote:

> On Mon, 24 Nov 2003 15:19:24 +0900, Scott Reynolds <sar@gol.com>
> wrote:
> 
>>On 11/23/2003 11:01 PM, Raj Feridun wrote:
>>
>>>Thank you also for the defense even though I think it was a bit
>>>tongue-in-cheek. My whole point from the very beginning of this was
>>>not that the problem did not exist but that it is racist to label the
>>>entire Japanese with that unkind, uncaring stamp of disapproval. This
>>>place I'm in too is Japan. I don't think its someone else's problem
>>>either. I've got a problem with anyone who is unkind and void of
>>>compassion for others, period.
>>
>>I would advise you to get off the racism hobby-horse. It only serves to 
>>undermine your other points. Believe me, none of the people here who 
>>have written things that you disagree with are claiming that there is 
>>something in the genes of the Japanese that accounts for the aspects of 
>>their society we find less than appealing.
> 
> I never got ON the hobby horse. Maybe it just SEEMS like I won't let
> it drop since I got piled on by all the ra... (OOPS!) in here at once
> and I'm firing off my replies like Gatling Gun rounds.

I just think you are completely off the mark with the comments about 
racism. I don't think that is the issue here at all.

> I'm MORE than happy to say goodbye to this topic, believe me.

That is your privilege, of course. Participation in this newsgroup is 
completely voluntary.

>>Okay, point taken. But the fact is that when Ed let loose with this 
>>outburst I knew exactly what he was talking about, even though he did 
>>not provide specifics. And I think most of us have had times when we 
>>felt like Ed felt when he wrote what he did. That is why there was no 
>>recrimination from any of the regulars in here. We knew that, at a 
>>certain level, what he was saying was perfectly true.
> 
> I had a racist experience on my very first visit to Japan back in
> 1985. 

There you go again! Ed said nothing about racism. He said Japanese are 
not kind. I extrapolated from his bald comment that he was probably 
lamenting the general coldness of Japanese people toward those who are 
not part of their group, and especially in public settings.

I suspect you took his comments to mean something else, and that is why 
you were so offended by them.

> Curiously it took place in Tokyo! I came over in a break from
> university to visit a Japanese friend who lived in Ikebukurom Tokyo.
> My buddy wanted to show me what pachinko was about so we wandered into
> his neighborhood pachinko parlor only to be ushered right back out the
> door. The owner angrily explained that the night before a group of
> drunken Aussies had gotten into a brawl in his place and damaged some
> of his machines. So he had decided to ban all foreigners. My Japanese
> friend went BALLISTIC on the owner's ass and I just sat there
> semi-stunned having felt racism directed at me directly for the first
> time in my life. 18 years later I still remember that well. 
> 
> Sheesh! I'm not even an AUSSIE!!

It is also quite possible that the owner of the pachinko parlor was not 
even (ethnically) Japanese. <g>

>>Perhaps you live in a very small community, in which everyone literally 
>>knows everyone else. Perhaps you are extrapolating from your warm 
>>relations with your family and close friends to your entire town, and 
>>even further. Perhaps people really just are different in your corner of 
>>Shikoku. But I don't think it is merely some bizarre aberration that 
>>people in Tokyo, Fukuyama, and Gunma are not "kind" to strangers. I 
>>suspect the phenomenon may be more widespread than you are willing to 
>>recognize.
> 
> Can you define "stranger" again? Also, when one of these strangers
> (Japanese) greets me do his actions somehow not count since I'm a
> foreigner?? Does that unkindness only apply to the actions of Japanese
> with other Japanese strangers?

Someone who has no specific connection to you, who shares no "group 
affiliation" with you. I am surprised to hear that such people greet you 
in your town, but if they indeed do so it would seem that you really do 
live in a particularly friendly part of Japan.

-- 
_______________________________________________________________
Scott Reynolds                                      sar@gol.com