This ‘experience’ happened to me a while ago, but ever so often I remember it, thinking back to how disgusting and outright mouth dropping this was. I thought I’d share this with all you, in an attempt to hopefully forget about it. lol
For context, I am a white guy from Greece (excuse my bad grammar) who has a host-family and the sort here in Japan. One day, my host family which consists of a Mom and her kid (and me), had to go to the City Hall to update things and get things sorted. Unfortunately, that day was crowded, so we had to wait for a while in order to talk to one of the officials. We all found a seat next to these two girls, who at first I thought were local, they were of Asian descent. Until I heard them speaking in English with a heavy stereotypical(?) LA accent. The way they spoke was like what you hear on those comedy shows; I think it’s called the valley-girl accent?
Anyway, I haven’t heard English in a while so I was surprised to hear it. And honestly was really excited to be able to understand something (lol). I wasn’t trying to listen in, it’s just they were talking so loud that even if I didn’t want to listen, I would have to literally go outside just to not hear them.
At first it was you’re type of gross high-school drama talk that people do with close friends, something that if I ever did, I would not do in public: (I’ll try quote what they said exactly, but it’s probably not 100% accurate)
>Girl A: “Omg, did you hear X is dating X now?”
>
>Girl B: “bro, what? That happened so quickly. God white people are so slimy.”
>
>Girl A: “yet you still date them. you have a thing for them, bro”
>
>Girl B: “lol, whatever.”
Most of this was just your eye-roll type of conversation… until they noticed me and my host-family. And for some apparent reason, they didn’t think I would understand English(?), or maybe they wanted me to hear it? Idk. Outloud, without no shame, they said:
>Girl A (attempts to whisper): “when did they get here?” (referring to me)
>
>Girl B: “omg, he has a kid.”
>
>Girl A: “Bro, why do white people like, have to stick their d\*\*\* in everything? Like, it’s not hard not to.”
>
>Girl B: “ya, I know right? It’s so f\*\*\*ing gross. He’s so f\*\*\* white.”
>
>\*both start laughing\*
What the …. ???? I honestly don’t even know how to even digest that. I would like to point out that I was facing my host-family the entire time, never talked to them, for the entire time I was just watching my host family’s kid play a game on the phone or small talk with my host mom- so- idk- I was thinking I did something to offend them? Or maybe they are just that gross?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there. 😀
They got called first to the counter, leaving our area. But soon after, they came back and just stood to the side of us. They literally just stood there and stared at us. And said this:
>Girl A: “So, like, what should we do? Do we like, go around them?”
>
>Girl B: “Idk, maybe just like wait?”
Then our number got called and we had to go the counter. When we all got up, they said:
>Girl A: “God, finally.”
???????? Your seats were still open, why not just say “excuse me” or “sumimasen” to move past us…? We weren’t blocking your path, I simply don’t understand. This was all OUT LOUD. Everyone could hear them!!!
Till this day I can’t believe the words I heard, especially out in public in a crowded area. It was just really gross and no shame, wish I didn’t understand English during that. I always thought that being foreigner here mean’t we should work together and help each other, but as of late… I feel like it’s best to avoid each other sometimes.
Have any of you guys had a similar experience here in Japan? Or is this **hopefully** an isolated case?
30 comments
> I always thought that being foreigner here mean’t we should work together and help each other
I kinda feel like you’re a nice guy, maybe new to Japan coming from a pretty chill environment, but this isn’t true at all. You find friends who are good, but some people will be dicks to other people, foreign or not.
In the end they’re probably just tourists with a severe lack of class, I say just move on!
Err… Wut?
Some people are the worst. Smash racism however the fuck it looks. I would have called them out.
????????
That’s me reading the part of their conversations. I am with you & I don’t understand them AT ALL.
lol, this so did not happen.
L.A. girls stay in L.A., and so do their inane thoughts.
They come here for a year max, after that they start melting.
Sounds like a funny story/experience to me. Dunno why it’s been eating you up all this time
Χαλαρά και μη σε νοιάζει αδελφέ! 😛
Years ago, I knew a Japanese couple who were living in a 2nd-tier city in China. They got very accustomed to commenting on people around them, since no one could understand.
They took a trip back to Japan during the holidays. When they came back, they told me that they had completely forgotten that everyone could understand them, and had started loudly criticizing a stranger’s appearance in a restaurant. Apparently, nobody reacted, but they will probably never get over the embarrassment.
They are weird. Aznidentity in real life…
I did read the script in valley accent, nice.
Regarding the issue, there are bad foreigners aswell because they are empty/bad persons.
They’re just some malakas. Ignore those bitches.
They come from Commiefornia apparently. A lot of people have horrible attitudes there (specifically those LA types, not the people from rural areas). When I was an exchange student, the most annoying fellow student spoke and acted exactly how you described. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with them… but it’s probably why a lot of California cities are going to shit.
I would have told them to fuck off back to America
Yeah, we don’t associate with these wannabe Asians. They like white shit when it suits them and discard when it suits them.
Fyi most people living in the Valley are trash, that area is like the Florida of California.
I have heard many people of varying nationalities make comments about how white guys only marry the ugliest Japanese women who can’t get a Japanese guy. Often from white guys who insist that they/their wife is the exception. It’s gross but pretty common. These girls assumed your host family was your family and their comments are on the theme of a common stereotype of white guys in Japan. But they don’t know you or your host family, and you will most likely never see them again, so just let it go. Yes, they were very rude, but some people are just shit.
>I always thought that being foreigner here mean’t we should work together and help each other,
That’s a super isolationist way of looking at things. Do I only stick my neck out for other English-speaking white dudes? Do I suck it up when I hear confused Spanish from a map outside and help them out?
Or should I keep helping people around me who need it, regardless of where they’re from?
I choose the last one. That way, I get screwed over by a more diverse group of people, eventually.
Trash will be trashy. Don’t give them more of your time than they deserve.
Hah, how long ago was this? I had two girls in my driving school classes exactly like these. Vapid as the day is long, and just eye-rolling and shitting on anyone they could. You kind of have to feel sorry for them, it sounds like they really weren’t raised right. I got the feeling from how petty they were being that being in Japan made them feel like fish out of water.
When they were staring at you and speaking loudly did you say anything? Did you just sit there avoiding eye contact like you couldn’t understand them?
Why didn’t you say anything to those lowlifes?
This one sounds like GPT to be completely honest.
And even if it’s not. . . It’s like when people post a closed story to something like “casual conversation.”
Two people were complete assholes because they thought they could get away with it.
It’s not indicative of anything except that two people were assholes because. . .
. . . they thought they could get away with it.
As a Californian, the state is filled with trashy/gross people. Unfortunately I am there now and am counting the minutes until I get back to Japan.
It’s our traditional custom to tell people like that off loudly, lol. If you don’t want to bother just ignore them and move on with your life.
Also, if you’ve never seen the movie Idiocracy..I can’t recommend it enough.
Two women addressing each other as “bro” is the weirdest thing. And I’m from Cali.
They are racist. It happens in all cultures and skin colors. F’ em just like the rest of the racist people. You can tell they know their idiots by them trying to justify their stupidity that they know deep down is wrong. It’ll just take an incident or two where they get called out to hopefully let them reflect.
I’m so glad my native is not english or other eu language. I don’t talk about ppls dicks on public but with my friend we also talk about ppl around. Nothing special.
Were they hot?
I’ve been in a similar situation. My take is that it’s just two shitty people with main character syndrome. They are basically vampires that use drama to feed into their own egos and sense of validation. If you had said anything back to them, I guarantee they would have made themselves out to be the victim and you would have only given them something juicy to post on social media. They were totally baiting you. Ignoring them is the best strategy.
Sorry OP you met the typical gatekeeping western raised Asians. They are fairly common in my home city. I have no qualms with anyone willing to explore my culture, others’ and live in different countries. It’s a great part of the human experience. For some reason I’ve met quite a few CBAs who feel the need to denigrate other ethnicities in Japan, when they are not even ethnically Japanese by descent. This behaviour transcends races also, I’ve seen others do the same when they have zero cultural relation except skin colour.
>I always thought that being foreigner here mean’t we should work together and help each other
I’ve known people who quit jobs after I personally recommended them. I almost got into a fistfight at a bar because some hothead didn’t like me commenting on his drink of choice – a fucking drink. I’ve had to drag away idiots who were two seconds away from getting into a fistfight, themselves. People have gossiped to my ex girlfriends about innocent things in a way that makes them sound deceptive. All of this from foreigners. I’m fucking done being nice and helping other gaijin over here.
Never experienced this from a foreigner in japan, but I’ve definitely experienced it back home in the USA. People from the USA are wildly racist. Don’t sweat it bro.