Boring

Today I heard a little speech type arrangement about foreigner rights in Japan. I went because I was bored. Unfortunately my situation wasn't improved by going as I remained bored. So I left, came here, and have been watching random episodes of Blackbooks and laughing my arse off (as much as one can in an environment where noise is frowned upon). Ah, Dylan Moran = funny man.

Lately in Japan there was a magazine entitled Gaijin Hanzai (foreigner crimes) published and sold at the Family Mart convenience stores. Some gaijin noticed it, made complaints to various quarters and the magazine was pulled from the shelves. I saw a copy of it today. It features no advertising at all and so must be fully funded by someone with a lot of cash since it is very professional looking, all glossy and stuff, heaps of articles and pictures and so on. The foreigner population in Japan is about 1%. Not sure what the crime rates are, but it would be a fair stretch of the imagination to consider that foreigners are contributing greatly to the crime levels. Personally I have never experienced any blatant discrimination while here, but there are plenty who have. I get the feeling that most who do are from "undesirable countries" like China, Phillipines, Korea and so on. The bloke who was talking today took legal action against the city he was living in for refusing his daughter and himself access to an onsen based upon their appearance. His wife is Japanese so his kids are half, one daughter looks very Japanese, the other is clearly half foreign - she was refused entry but her sister was allowed in. I have heard of places putting up signs saying "no foreigners" and the like, but have never seen it myself. I guess this whole thing is part of the struggle for those long term foreigners in Japan. To me it just doesn't matter beacuse I have no intention of staying here, and no desire to be considered a local anyway. All the people at the speech today were definitely a different crowd to what I normally see; the lifers. People who have been here for more than 10 years, who have spouses and kids here. Good luck to em, I'm just getting out!

In happier news; it is now a mere 9 days until my friend touches down over here to play with me!!! It's all getting very very exciting.