Culture: Loose Socks Part 6 - "Gaijin Power" Reported on Wednesday, Sep 29, 2004. 14:19 by Kalin Kosturkov
Gaijin power can be found in many guises, has also been known as GEOS, AEON or NOVA and is your ticket to untold fame and fortune and sex beyond all your wettest of dreams.
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Ok, so it's not the miracle cure-all for you insecurities but it is a start. You can come to Japan straight out of uni with little or no qualifications; all you need is a university degree, no teaching experience required. Most of the above companies will give you inadequate training, horrendous conditions, a tiny apartment and an average salary, but what it also will give you is an opportunity to meet girls, many many girls.
In previous loose socks articles I have mentioned the 126 million odd people living in Japan. What I failed to mention is Japan's male to female ratio, with an outstanding one man to every three females. Boys, Australia used to be the land of opportunity but, Japan is knocking at the door.
I want you to imagine that tranquil scene of a Geisha girl with her wooden Geta, bound from head to toe in an elaborate Kimono. She is delicately balancing a paper parasol over her shoulder, walking across an ancient red bridge with the manicured garden in the background. Now reverse that image, shake it up a little and look through the eyes of the Japanese.
The Western image through Japanese eyes also has this serene unrealistic viewpoint of us. This was delicately portrayed in Lost in Translation, this cult of admiration, of loving, desiring something that is vastly different to the norm. This admiration is systemic in Japanese culture. Put simply the atmosphere created could constitute a warped superficial sense of love of the gaijin.
Add this superficial love to this fact; there is a minuscule amount of Caucasian foreigners in Japan and the majority are working in Japan as English Teachers! Of the 126 million people a mere 0.1 percent are of Caucasian stock. This makes the average white male an elusive crown for those of the population that exemplify Western ideals.
This perpetuated image of foreigners has become so misconstrued that some Japanese girls can't discern what constitutes an attractive foreign man. This puts you, the below average looking guy, in an auspicious position. For the first time in your life you can "cash in" in Japan. You can jump on board and enjoy that superstar status a foreigner receives and you too can have what you have always desired, a girlfriend.
Before I promised you "many many girls", so now you're here. You've started your job, you have a few cute students, but thus far this "Promised Land" hasn't actuated. What I failed to mention is the average Japanese girl is not that interested in you. For a start, unless you speak fluent street Japanese the average Pinky and Diane girl isn't even going to give you a sideways glance, let alone the time of day. So you find yourself back at square one, dateless and desperate.
Don't be dismayed those elusive women are out there, you just have to scratch the surface to find them. So where do you find them? If you have just arrived in Japan the local gaijin pub is a good place to start.
The gaijin pub is the antithesis of this megalomania that has been created in Japan. It is a cesspool of English teacher scum. You've travelled all the way across the globe to one of the most fascinating countries in the world but thus far you have spent every weekend surrounded by your foreign comrades, reminiscing about home. The local gaijin pub consists of a sordid tale of what happens if you spend too long in Japan. There are the "lifers", the middle age men, still trying to "pick up" the youngest girl in the bar. Then you have your mid-term boys, who have found both their niche and best pick up line, vomiting verbal diarrhoea to their comrade's in arms and swapping war stories of the latest girl. Then you have the freshmen, with no idea of what to do or where to go so find them selves in the same bar week in week out.
Unfortunately these gaijin bars contain the easiest way for a foreign man to meet a Japanese girl. In one way the gaijin pub constitutes a dating club, where girls that are interested in actually meeting and dating foreign men congregate.
There are the innocents that have come out of curiosity. Perhaps they have been dragged along by their friend, or have been encouraged by their English teacher. There are the girls who have spent time in an English speaking country that wish to reminisce about the "good time's " that they had now they find themselves back in their reality.
From an outside perspective looking in on this gaijin world, the saddest thing to see is the scumbag that preys on these kinds of girls. Girls with English poor enough not to have the ability to recognize that the man they are talking to would in their own country have no chance even meeting a girl of their standards or are being fooled by the oldest of pick up lines by the sleaziest of scumbags.
There are always two sides to the coin, and in Japan there are girls who date foreign men as a status symbol. There are inherent dangers with this last group of girls and if you are willing to "cash in " on one of these kinds of girls there is a significant chance that for a while the novelty of you will last. Eventually your "gaijin power" will wear off and you could be left feeling like a empty husk, compounded when you see your ex girlfriend slobbering all over the new freshman who's just arrived in Japan.
Just like home, there are the scumbags, but not every foreigner in Japan could be coined into this unfortunate lot, it does exist though that for your average metro sexual there are girls in Japan that can fulfil every hearts desires.
There is some good news, I have heard that Japanese girls are particularly fond of Aussie guys; one of my students told me that we have a good reputation as boyfriends, kind, considerate and different to the average Japanese man. She went on to say that the best thing about a foreign man is that a Japanese girl can put on a little bit of weight and the gaijin boyfriend won't mind, but a Japanese boyfriend would be highly insulted. Now if you actually see a Japanese girl you would understand that a little extra weight is something that you would never even notice, least of all get upset about.
My parting words are these. There are only cultural differences between a Japanese woman and an Australian woman; remember, they are as infinitely complex up here. Love them, be loved by them and treat them with the respect that they deserve. If you are a scumbag, don't come here. The place has already filled its quota.