I think one of the more interesting things that’s coming out about Japan is that so far, I have encountered zero full-blown negativity towards me. Yes, people stare constantly, they look horrified when I go to buy or order something because they expect that I do not know Japanese, they occasionally point, secretly take pictures, or talk to their friends as I walk by, that sort of thing.

But for the most part, all the people I’ve spoken to, young and old, have been delighted to speak with me and eager to get to know me better.

For example, in my district, you don’t send in your money for your health insurance. Rather, a man can come every month to collect it instead. Mine come a few days ago, and after finally believing me when I told him that yes, indeed, I am the one who is paying for it, we began to have a happy chat of him struggling to recall English phrases and me replying in Japanese. He seemed so pleased to see me, to know that I’m studying Japanese, that I was even speaking to him. It was a struggle to get him to leave, really, he wanted to keep talking. The same thing happened when I house sat for my okaasan and met the internet repairman, as well as the gentleman who came to replace our water heater.

I know that for now, progress won’t be easy. It’s not a burst of knowledge or an instant transition to fluency. But it’s coming to me. Right now, I’m at the level where I can understand what is being said to me, but my vocabulary is still so limited that I cannot reply as fluidly as I would like. I still struggle, but things are sinking in, making more sense, stringing together, and I have the motivation to get better, even if it means throwing out random Japanese grammar and babbling until I get my point across. 

On the opposite side of the spectrum… is Halloween in Japan. From everything I’ve heard, Halloween is not exactly considered an official holiday. No one goes trick-or-treating, no one really carves pumpkins or tells ghost stories. Here, it’s basically a marketing event where everything from cookies to cakes to donuts are sold with a Halloween theme while everyone buys costumes to wear to parties so that people can take their picture. That’s about it. It’s a very peculiar sort of attitude, but as I’ve seen the same thing in Russia, I wasn’t all that surprised. More-so, it was surprising how much stores and shops got into it just to sell their wares.

Also, this:

Translated, that says “HELLO! I am a foreigner!” I’m still torn on how to react to a “White person” costume, but it was surprisingly amusing, nonetheless.

Location: Nagoya, Japan