#Gaijinconfessions

[dorchadas]

There was a hashtag about gaijin confessions on Friday on twitter. My favorite is probably "Also told someone I wanted to buy a human instead of a carrot once" (Carrot is 人参 ninjin, human is 人間 ningen), but there's a lot of good stuff collected here.

It made me think of my own #gaijinconfessions, so here's a few of them:

• To this day, my breakfast is miso soup, rice, salmon, and pickles while sitting on the floor at a low table. This despite that most of our students ate "bread and milk" for breakfast, including the kimono shop owner who met his wife through a 仲人 (nakōdo, "marriage broker").
  
• I also took the trash out at night, because there's no way I was getting up at 8 a.m. on Saturday just to get the trash out by 8:30.
  
• Japanese cheese is garbage and we happily paid $20 a pound for good cheese at the import foods store.
  
• The first winter I was there I survived mostly off canned chicken soup from the Foreign Buyer's Club because we hadn't quite gotten used to proper shopping for our 3/4th size fridge yet.
  
• We spent a week in Singapore in and I thought everyone was unconscionably rude because I was used to a Japanese level of service.
  
• I got used to being able to talk about anything I wanted and would happy tell off-color stories secure that people around me almost certainly couldn't understand me.
  
• Even though I'm American, I actually don't own a gun or eat hamburgers every day.
  
• My favorite onigiri is the kimchi-ume one I bought while we were in Ōsaka for schoolpsychnerd to take the GRE. It was only sold in Ōsaka and the Japanese people we told about it thought we were making it up.
  
• I was never sure whether to use Japanese or English with staff in Indian restaurants.
  
• I once boarded a bus twice with the same ticket after I forgot my laptop. I disembarked and took the light rail back into Hiroshima, retrieved my laptop from the ramen shop, and got on the next bus on the same line using my same ticket. The attendant looked at me nervously, wondering why a gaijin was going to Innoshima, and I flashed the ticket and walked on. Saved me ¥4000.

Comments

[princessofburundi]

Onigiri? I don't know what that is, nor do I know what kimchi-ume is. Did you live in Japan for a while? I see that you're now in the States, according to your profile.

[dorchadas]

schoolpsychnerd and I lived in Japan for three years, in a town about 45 minutes into the mountains northeast of Hiroshima. It's why my Japan tag is so full of posts and why all the tags are also in Japanese! Edit: I've got a bunch of info about the town we lived in under the A Tour of Chiyoda tag.

(When tagging was introduced I originally tagged everything in Japanese, and then later started translating them for the benefit of people reading)

Onigiri are rice balls (well, rice triangles), and the "ume" in kimchi-ume is 梅、Japanese plum, usually pickled when it's in riceballs. It's an amazing spicy-sour taste that I never would have thought of on my own, and apparently neither would most Japanese people.

[princessofburundi]

Living in Japan sounds amazing!

I read a book set in Japan and Canada last week. (A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki). The great-grandmother is picking out rice balls for a picnic and she picked some that were spicy seaweed flavour, and others that were sour plum flavour, and another sort that I've forgotten. I was pretty put off by the thought of sour plum rice balls, but seeing that you like them too makes me a little more curious.

Thanks for the descriptions, by the way. I think you should expect a lot of questions from me. I am one of those people who wants to understand everything.

Is it possible to keep kosher in Japan? I'd be surprised if you could buy matzos in Tokyo.

[dorchadas]

It was one of the best experiences of my life.

--A Tale for the Time Being

I read that book with my book group. I had kind of mixed feelings on it, though...

--Is it possible to keep kosher in Japan?

It is very difficult, though I was less observant then so eating shellfish didn't bother me. I'd have a harder time now that I don't eat pork or shellfish anymore.

You can definitely get kosher food in Tokyo! It's getting it anywhere else that's a problem.

[princessofburundi]

The comment I just wrote ended up right next to your tag "call of cthulhu" - you're a Lovecraft fan as well! I love his stories - The Thing on the Doorstep is my favourite - and have spent many freaked-out nights thanks to his works. Lovecraft is so good that he can make you frightened of trees!

I will have to add Cthulhu and Lovecraft to my profile interests.

[dorchadas]

I love Lovecraft. I found his books in the horror section of the library in high school and got sucked in, and I'm so glad that now he's getting the cultural recognition that he deserves!