Thanks Luke! I don't think I've ever looked more mature than in that photo.
You look like party-man. The kind of guy everyone needs at their birthday party.
Hey, those are some pretty important issues you've hit on, ones that plague me too. What kind of foreigner am I? Am I a good foreigner? How can I be the best foreigner I can be? How can I live here without being livid all the time or perpetually offended by real and imagined slights?
That's right, Luke. A lot of the time we think of how to be a foreigner for the good of the host society; how not to offend people, or how to fit in, but being foreign is also a powerful life experience. I suppose you're in a far more insightful position than I am on the issue of how a foreign identity affects personal development.
On the subject of how Japan views foreigners...recent news:
Japan racism 'deep and profound'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world...fic/
4671687.stm
Deep and profound? Maybe, but the one sure thing is that folks will never talk about it among each other or to foreigners. Even those who are not in the slightest bit racist won't talk about it.
Yep, I ask myself this question too. Here's my take. You learn by being the outsider. Your goal is not to be a good foreigner, as you say. It's to learn from (a) the experience of being isolated and (b) the good points of the culture you are isolated in.
Take the best of what you can from Japanese culture while never forgetting the good points of your own culture. Stand between the two cultures without being "above" either of them. If you can get over the isolation (and it's an ongoing struggle for us all), there is a lot to learn. I also think you have to view your whole life as a kind of cultural experiment to live here.
Commenting by HaloScan
