I can't speak for other English speaking countries (as I learned that even anime as ubiquitous as Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z are virtually unheard of in the UK, for example), but I can say that an obsession with Japan and its culture definitely exists in the States. Japanophilia is a well-known subculture that lurks in the darker, geekier underbelly of the American university system and recently, with anime and jpop becoming more mainstream, it is threatening to take root in high schools and jr highs as well, spawning legions of school-girl-fantasizing, jpop listening, and slightly socially maladjusted otaku fan-boys. Quick, for those of you fanboys who may be reading this, let me impart onto you, the knowledge and wisdom I have acquired in my 20+ months of living in Japan:
School Girls: It's TRUE. Yes, they look AND act just like they do in anime. Short skirts included.
Jpop: Sucks. No really, I'm serious.
Social Retardedness: Cannot actually be cured by living in Japan and dating aforementioned school girls. It's not that you suddenly become irresistable and charming; jgirls have just learned to look past your personality flaws and choose to focus on your white-ness. This does not generally apply to boys of Asian descent.
Cataloguing Japanophilia was not the main purpose of this entry, however. Instead, I wanted to report the existence of the Japanese counterpart to the American Japanophile: the foreigner-obsessed nihonjin (henceforth to be referred to as FON for the sake of brevity). So far, I have taken note of 3 types:
Type 1: The jgirls who want to date foreigners. Just 'cause.
Type 2: The jgirls who are truly interested in foreign countries and are foward thinking. Some of these FONs date foreign guys for the reason of wanting to learn more about the western world and can be at times mistaken for Type 1.
Type 3: Japanese people who for no apparent reason are single-mindedly obsessed with learing English and accumulating hordes of English-speaking friends/acquaintances. They're not interested in traveling, dating foreigners, or any of the typical FON activities.
Recently, a new English teacher was transferred to my current jr. high school. I met her last Tuesday, the first day of the new school year. She managed to corner me and then proceeded to talk at me Micro-Machine-Man-pace for about 20 minutes, pausing only to catch her breath. She introduced herself as "Kelly" and insisted that she be called "Kelly." And not only by me, but by her students, the other teachers, and her family as well. Her hobby is English. She loves to study English. On the weekends, she studies English. Her goal in life is to be fluent in English. She does not particularly want to travel or live abroad. She just LOVES ENGLISH. A Type 3 FON.
Wednesday, she told me she was so happy that we were friends and was glad that now I could teach her English. She had apparently told all of her friends at her English conversation class that she had met a super-nice foreigner who would be friends with all of them and teach them all ENGLISH. Joy.
Thursday rolls around. I was writing a letter to Eva. "Kelly"-san walked by and noticed that I was writing a letter. "Who is Eva?" she asked. "What does this word mean? What about this word?" Hmmm, how do I say, "You shouldn't read other peoples' letters because it's pretty damn rude" in Japanese?
By Friday, I was pretty sure that she had taken to stalking me. She followed me to the bathroom 3 out of the 4 times that I went that day, and she used the hand-washing time to sneak a quick conversation.
I'm glad to say that now that classes have officially started, I think "Kelly"-san has been a bit too busy to accompany me to the toilet. Don't get me wrong, she seems like a really nice person. Her enthusiasm is just a bit overwhelming for me in my current state of mind. A little goes a long way, especially for me, and I think I might need to tell her that if she continues in this manner. Don't worry. I'll be nice!
Currently Reading: Forrest Gump - Winston Groom
Currently Playing: Honey Peeps - ALL
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