The renowned Mr. Arudou

Well, I met Debito today. I got into the room late (they switched it at the last minute and didn't tell me) and stayed to listen to his presentation for a bit over an hour, then went to lunch with him and some of the law students who had attended the lecture. Knowing most of his work pretty well, the majority of stuff covered was quite familiar, but it was still interesting to hear him speak about it in person. Seemed like a nice guy - reasonably down to earth, genuine and very friendly, though obviously with a keen talent for self-promotion. I spoke to him for a while and took a photo - it's below, just for the grandchildren. Not that most of the rest of the world knows who he is, anyway.

Lunch afterwards was good - in Faculty House, which has a wonderful prospect view over most of Harlem. Got to talk in rather more relaxed surroundings and ask him a few questions. The guy's not exactly a hero of mine, but I have a lot of respect for him and it kinda made my day to meet him in person. I asked him if he didn't think that onsen and restaurants with discriminatory signs were small beer and that the real target should be discrimination in places where it can really ruin people's lives, like Japanese academia, and he answered that the stuff he did was much more clear-cut and easier to do, so that's what he worked with.

There was a Japanese law student there too, Toshi, who I think at times thought that he was kind of being attacked by proxy - and Debito did take exception to his talking about "we Japanese" when of course Debito himself is one of them. But I think he was able to smooth it over by stressing a couple of times that all nations, none more so than the US, have their own problems with discrimination.

Good times. Columbia provides one with a lot of opportunities.

Self and Debito! 

Credit or Debit(o)?

I learned today while at work that David Aldwinckle, also known as Debito Arudo, is coming to Columbia Law School on Monday to talk on his experiences in Japan. Most of you who are/were JETs will know who this guy is, but if you don't, he has a (admittedly badly organised, but still interesting) website. He's fairly famous/notorious amongst the JET and expat foreign community in Japan for his activism against racial discrimination in Japan, and, being bored at work fairly frequently in my CIR days, I've perused virtually all of his site and am very familiar with his stuff.

So I'll make sure to go along and see what he has to say. By all accounts he's a pretty good speaker, so this should be interesting.

I swear, I passed a beggar today on the street (or panhandler, to use the native terminology) who was wearing an iPod. Now if that isn't chutzpah, I don't know what is.

Embracing...?

I've been reading John Dower's Embracing Defeat - Japan in the Aftermath of World War II as required reading for my modern Japanese literature seminar. We're dealing with the literature that arose after the war as a response to Japan's surrender, occupation and the travails thus entailed. If you haven't read it, and you're interested, I would highly recommend it - it's an absolutely fascinating book, wonderfully well written, accessible and absorbing even to the non-Japan specialist, and belongs on the shelf of every would-be academic on Japan.

The relevance of which is probably debatable, but seeing as this is my blog I thought I would use if for a little bit of self-indulgent rambling. One of the most interesting parts of the book concerns sexual mores and their dynamics in the immediate aftermath of the war. No doubt influenced by the behaviour of their own troops abroad in WWII, the Japanese authorities set up what were in effect brothels to cater for the GI's needs (later shut down by SCAP), assuming that the incoming army would have a gargantuan sexual appetite. And one of the most noticeable figures in a Japan still plagued by shortages of even basic staples was the pan-pan, a prostitute who dressed in Western-style and often catered exclusively to GIs. The effect of this on the Japanese male psyche can well be imagined, especially former Japanese soldiers - hitherto "decent" women throwing themselves at the strapping, healthy, wealthy GIs initally out of need to sustain themselves, but increasingly in later years, as Dower notes, simply out of curiosity or wanting to make money.

My point in bringing all of this up is that it seems very much on reflection that the above history still exerts a considerable influence on gaijin-Japanese male-female relations even today. I can't claim to be an expert on this - I've never even so much as kissed a J-girl - but we can, I think, see echoes of it in Miyagi Prefectural Assemblyman Kanno's comments before the 2002 World Cup that measures would need to be taken to deal with unwanted pregnancies resulting from rapes committed by foreign "hooligans". Do remnants of the consciousness of the Occupation in some part account for the seeming popularity of Western men in Japan, or is it simply the grass being greener? Does it still hold true for general attitudes towards gaijin, especially white males? What do they represent to your average J-girl? Is this the root of the undercurrent of competitiveness that I tended to feel when socialising with younger J-guys?

Of course, it works both ways as well, and I think the image of the seductive, pliable Asian woman stems at least as much from the US's time in Japan as it does from Vietnam's experience (me love you long time, and all that). Still. All in all, there's no real point to this; I just wanted to put down some thoughts I'd been having this evening, since I know for some of you this is at least semi-relevant.

And in other news, I just realised that K and I have been dating for 4 months now. That's my second-longest relationship ever. Blimey.

Playing it down

It's been a curiously low key Spring break, really. If I were an American undergraduate, the chances are I would have spent most of it doing tequila shots off a half-naked college girl in Cancun or somewhere similar. So runs the tradition. So perhaps on reflection it's a good thing I'm not an American undergrad. Though I guess it depends on your attitude to doing shots off half-naked women (personally I have a lot of time for it). And also on how hot the half-naked woman is. And which half is naked. But I digress.

Maybe it's been because I've been working on my thesis all week - got a fair bit of productive research done - and so have most of the other people I hang around with. I went over to Arunabh's place on Tuesday to watch cricket, but apart from that I've been working, exercising and studying, with not much else to shout about. K's out of town - gone back to California - though she comes back tomorrow evening. I'll admit I missed her, sensitive new man that I am (though still rugged and chiselled as ever, be it noted. Especially since I took advantage of her absence to not shave). Be good to have her back.

Friday was, of course, St Paddy's day, one celebrated raucously throughout the city, no doubt, but not by me or any of my friends. It had been my plan to drink some green beer, affect my Irish accent and see if I could fool anybody into thinking I was actually Irish, as I have quite a convincing brogue when I put my mind to it. That didn't happen. Didn't even have a pint of the black stuff, although considering I think it tastes like pond water that's not something I was particularly cut up over.

Queens, Curry and Cafe Culture

It's warm outside, it's Spring Break and have no pressing work to do for a few days. Time to relax. Over poker on Friday night (I came 2nd this time), the plan was tabled to go for curry in Queens. Queens is the borough of New York which contains Little India, and so as a Brit it was hard to resist the opportunity. Self, K, my good friend Arunabh - we are mutual outlets for each other's obsession with cricket - Lizza, Reto and his Mrs. were all in attendance. Food was good, authentic enough and fairly varied, with even a goat curry on offer. Tasted a bit overcooked to me.

It was a lazy, hazy Saturday afternoon, and we stopped for coffee in midtown Manhattan before walking back up to the Columbia area through Central Park. In complete contrast to the previous couple of weeks, the world, his wife, her mum and his dog were there. The first really warm day for months, and everyone comes out of the woodwork.

Up in Morningside Heights, too, all the cafes have put their pavement chairs and tables back out again. What with it being spring break, the place is quiet, sunny and relaxed, just enough to feel like it was when I first arrived here. I'm going to have to do some work on my MA thesis this break, unfortunately - but you gotta grab the chance to relax when it presents itself, no?

Life is good

It's Spring Break. I'm not going anywhere for it - I don't have the money, and in any case I need to get to work on my Master's thesis - but it's good to have a little time off, even just ten days or so without classes. The weather's on the up, spring seems to have sprung and things with K and I are going great too. It also transpires I may be able to get $3,000 to help out with my expenses for this summer as I get my thesis done and maybe prepare another paper for publication.

So all in all, things are pretty sweet.