So far I have written about my life in Japan. Many of my friends comment that I have all praise to Japanese people and Japan. They come across a considerable number of sarcastic blogs on Japan. Most of the blogs on Japan by foreigners are antagonistic in nature and narrate their discrimination experiences.
They have enough reason to prove their prejudices that Japan is highly racist and hate foreigners. All these anti-Japan venom they spatter still by enjoying the peaceful living in Japan far away from their home country where they might have been treated worse than anything. I don’t want to justify any kind of racist mentality if at all any of the Japanese national possess within them. Any kind of racism is against humanity and is therefore animal instinct.
Unfortunately enough (!) I could not come across any kind of discrimination so far during my stay in Japan and interaction with Japanese people. In fact I have been treated with well respect, friendly and get consideration as I am a foreigner. I have to still find out what section of foreigners face discrimination and why. I will try to find the truth from Japanese friends only and till then let me assert that Japan is fairly good to foreigners.
Probably, as is true with any section of society, some of the foreigners in Japan may try to see only the bad side of everything. Or their experience tends them to think in that direction? I am not sure.
I have not enough reason to blame Japanese people. But today to be frank, I have learned a complaint from a dog which has faced discrimination at his Japanese owner’s house!
Let me write all the story of this dog first in Romanized Japanese and then translate into English.
Inu no seikatsu
Watashi wa Tomo desu. Santosusan no uchini imasu. Watashi wa maiasa okusan to sanboni ikimasu. 8jigoro teresachan to gakko e ikimasu. Sorekara uchi e kaerimasu. Soshite okusan to kaimono ni ikimasu. Gogo gakko e teresachan o mukaeni ikimasu. Sorekara isshoni koen e asobini ikimasu.
Shoomatsu wa teresachan no gakko to santosusan no kaisha wa yasumi desu. Santosusan no kazoku wa tooi tokoro e kuruma de asobini ikimasu. Watashi mo isshoni ikimasu. Totomo tsukaremasu.
Santosusan no uchi ni neko mo imasu. Neko wa mainichi nani mo shimasen. Doko mo ikimasen. Watashi wa asa kara ban made isogashi desu. Yasumi ga Zenzen arimasen. Watashi wa neko to isshoni yasumitai desu.
Dog’s life (Translation)
I am Tom. I live at Mr. Santos’ house. Daily I will go for a walking with Mrs. Santos. At around 8 O’ clock, I will go with Ms Teresa to her school. After leaving her at school I will return to home. Then I will go for shopping with Mrs. Santos. Evenings, I will go to school to accompany Ms Teresa. Then we will go to the park for playing.
Ms. Teresa’s school and Mr. Santos’s office will have holidays on weekends. They will go to far away places by car for playing. I will also go with them. I will be totally tired.
There is a cat also at Mr. Santos’s house. This cat won’t do anything all the days and won’t go anywhere. While I am too busy from the morning to the night, this cat is very lazy. I have no rest day. I also want to take rest with the cat.
This is the life of our dog at his Japanese owner’s house. He wants to take rest and be lazy like the cat and he feels as if he is very tired of the life in Japan!!!
This was the story of a dog named Tom which we have studied in our last Japanese language class at OVTA. We made a lot of fun out of this story. I am not very much sure whether the discrimination towards foreigners in Japan is strong enough to compete with Britain and United States, where even “No entry for Indians and Dogs” boards were a prestige symbol of their golden past.
They have enough reason to prove their prejudices that Japan is highly racist and hate foreigners. All these anti-Japan venom they spatter still by enjoying the peaceful living in Japan far away from their home country where they might have been treated worse than anything. I don’t want to justify any kind of racist mentality if at all any of the Japanese national possess within them. Any kind of racism is against humanity and is therefore animal instinct.
Unfortunately enough (!) I could not come across any kind of discrimination so far during my stay in Japan and interaction with Japanese people. In fact I have been treated with well respect, friendly and get consideration as I am a foreigner. I have to still find out what section of foreigners face discrimination and why. I will try to find the truth from Japanese friends only and till then let me assert that Japan is fairly good to foreigners.
Probably, as is true with any section of society, some of the foreigners in Japan may try to see only the bad side of everything. Or their experience tends them to think in that direction? I am not sure.
I have not enough reason to blame Japanese people. But today to be frank, I have learned a complaint from a dog which has faced discrimination at his Japanese owner’s house!
Let me write all the story of this dog first in Romanized Japanese and then translate into English.
Inu no seikatsu
Watashi wa Tomo desu. Santosusan no uchini imasu. Watashi wa maiasa okusan to sanboni ikimasu. 8jigoro teresachan to gakko e ikimasu. Sorekara uchi e kaerimasu. Soshite okusan to kaimono ni ikimasu. Gogo gakko e teresachan o mukaeni ikimasu. Sorekara isshoni koen e asobini ikimasu.
Shoomatsu wa teresachan no gakko to santosusan no kaisha wa yasumi desu. Santosusan no kazoku wa tooi tokoro e kuruma de asobini ikimasu. Watashi mo isshoni ikimasu. Totomo tsukaremasu.
Santosusan no uchi ni neko mo imasu. Neko wa mainichi nani mo shimasen. Doko mo ikimasen. Watashi wa asa kara ban made isogashi desu. Yasumi ga Zenzen arimasen. Watashi wa neko to isshoni yasumitai desu.
Dog’s life (Translation)
I am Tom. I live at Mr. Santos’ house. Daily I will go for a walking with Mrs. Santos. At around 8 O’ clock, I will go with Ms Teresa to her school. After leaving her at school I will return to home. Then I will go for shopping with Mrs. Santos. Evenings, I will go to school to accompany Ms Teresa. Then we will go to the park for playing.
Ms. Teresa’s school and Mr. Santos’s office will have holidays on weekends. They will go to far away places by car for playing. I will also go with them. I will be totally tired.
There is a cat also at Mr. Santos’s house. This cat won’t do anything all the days and won’t go anywhere. While I am too busy from the morning to the night, this cat is very lazy. I have no rest day. I also want to take rest with the cat.
This is the life of our dog at his Japanese owner’s house. He wants to take rest and be lazy like the cat and he feels as if he is very tired of the life in Japan!!!
This was the story of a dog named Tom which we have studied in our last Japanese language class at OVTA. We made a lot of fun out of this story. I am not very much sure whether the discrimination towards foreigners in Japan is strong enough to compete with Britain and United States, where even “No entry for Indians and Dogs” boards were a prestige symbol of their golden past.
Hey nice to know about your blog.. first time visting and . thanks for sharing your experience
ReplyDelete-Zia
Hi Zia, Nice to meet you here. I have been writing on this blog for the past almost one year. I find this blog platform is one of the effective methods for mass communication for individuals like us and good for sharing photos and experiences in Japan.
ReplyDeleteSee you again
I love this post!! “No entry for Indians and Dogs” !!! Ha ha ha.....
ReplyDeleteJayaprakash, you made my day :)
Today after many many years, I remembered my Indian History classes of school-days and our history during the British rule. And......... it made my blood boil.
Dear Manisha-san: That was the history of British unfortunately, but that should not prevent British too to voice against racism.
ReplyDeleteRacism is an animal instinct and people with racist mind are on their half way of their evolution to become human beings. Animal instincts to kill, to hate, to eat fellow beings, to separate to show supremacy..........a racist is no more than a cannibal.
I remembered a part of our history, when the British people ruled India, some sections our society were eager to identify their origin to a common ancestor to that of British. They took out their shirts and tried to show their light brown skin to the British! But still British were not convinced of their claim!
We discriminated our own people in India and still it is going on. At least the British in Australia took the courage to appologise to the indigenous stolen generations of aborigines.
Jaya-san,
ReplyDeleteYou have rocked the blog with this post. I will say it a daring post from you.
No entry for Indians and dogs. It reminds me of the British ruled Indian history. Japanese racism is not competitive to win with that American or British or Australian or South African. Japanese people are proud of their uniqueness and that is true also. They have enough reasons to be proud of their origin and uniqueness.
Racism from any quarter can not be justified. Be it in Indonesia or any other part of the world. We share a lot of common history with India. India and Indonesia have much more in common than between any of the two countries. The similarity of people:s attitude is one of the most important thing I have noticed.