Black girl in Japan

If you walked down 2nd Avenue in New York City wearing only combat boots and a smile, (and what the heck--throw in a swastika on your navel!)you would be stared at less than if you were a black girl with braids, in work clothes, going to work in Tokyo! Seriously. In Japan there is absolutely noooo reprieve! The stares are constant and endless. You could sense that they want to touch you to see if you are real! But coming from a big city, you don't really expect that; you expect a certain amount of anonymity. Forget all that! Expect to be like Jim Carey in the Truman Show. Sometimes I would try to stare people down on the train, but they were so busily locked into staring at me that they didn't even notice that I was staring back! Only when they finally noticed would they lower their eyes. Anyway, it was a sort of Sisyphusian task.

Expect the Japanese to be always shocked when they see you--Like they are seeing you for the first time!

Ok. So my boyfriend and I moved to Kyoto and rented a house, in what I can only describe as a sort of Dickensian, 19th century fishing village! It was a two-storey house in a very narrow cobblestoned street. The houses were all tightly packed together as if their main objective was the keep the the other houses upright. Ok. Sort of like this:




And six months later:
My neighbors! The people I have lived sooooo close to, for six months! Who see me leaving everyday, at the same time, would still put her hand to her mouth and titter!!; like she had just seen me for the first time!! This experience makes you a better person.