Another defeat, Asian's hair cut in NY

I used to go to a Japanese salon
to get my hair cut till I had a career crisis.
After that, I thought it was too expensive for me
and I, who did not have stable income anymore, did not deserve
such a lavish treatment. Well, it cost about $50.
However, I could not accept the idea to go to a regular barber
because I had gone to a salon since I was 18 years old.
So I started to go to the chain hair cut place called "SuperCut"
which looks kinda like a salon with a barber shop price.
It turned out to be a place
for newly graduates from hair cutter schools.
And they come and go very quickly
as I guess they do not get paid well.

So each time I go there, I have to explain to a new person
what kind of hair cut I like.
I usually say
"I like choppy hair cut, shaggy kinda one,
lots of layers and zig zag lines,
short back and sides just touch my ears,
top should be a little longer,
and bangs, longest ones touchs my eyeblows."

But still some of them gave me a very wierd hait cut,
like every lines were so straight.
Once a young Black woman gave me such a strange hair cut
that I could not help saying to her
I could not walk outside with my hair like that.



As it really puzzled me,
I asked some Japanese I know
if they had any similar experience like this.
And some of them said yes.
Then I realized this is some sort of stereo typing about Asians.
Asians are supposed to have very weird straight line hair cut.
I do not know where this stereo typing came from.

Well, this is another stereo type image I have to accept
or coop with if I live in U.S. especially as a poor one.

How Japanese see Koreans #1

Momoe Yamaguchi was one of the biggest stars in Japan during '70s,
and this song is one of her many hits,
which is called "謝肉祭 Shanikusai(Carnival)."
Interesting enough, this song had been prohibited
to be put on the air,
and her compilation CDs had not included this song untill recently.
Why?
Because the lyric contains the word "Gypsy"
and that is considered as a derogatory remark.

Do you know where the "Gypsy" came from?
Gypsies were the people who migrated to Europe
from the north India.
But at that time,
as most of Europeans did not know much about India,
they thought those dark people were Egyptians.
Then "Egyptian" became "Gyptian", then "Gypsy."
Now it is considered derogatory against Egyptians.

From late '80s to mid '90s,
there was a strong cracking down movement
against any derogatory remarks in Japanese media,
which probably was influenced by
"Politically Correct" movement in American media.
All of sudden, so many words were prohibited to be used
in media and some works which had been already
published/released became out of print
and/or being prohibited to be put on the air.
There were so many words disappered from the media like:

Kichigai...crazy
Mekura.....blind
Katawa.....hadicapped
Ainoko.....racially mixed
Eta........descriminated group of people in Japan
Kuronbo....Blacks, equivalent to "N word"

There was a huge commotion in general public
about this prohibition.
Many people said it was wrong to prohibit to use these words
because they have been used for so many years,
and this kind of crack down can be
againt the freedom of expression.

At that time, I was already in U.S.,
and still there was no internet.
Yet I could almost figure out which words were wrong to use
as probably I had been advocated
about politically correctness, by living here in U.S.
However, still the prohibition of the word "Gypsy"
was a bit strange to me
because it is okay to use it in U.S.
I have never heard the songs like "Gypsy Woman"
were criticized because of the usage of that term.

Then, about two years ago,
On my e-mail, I asked my editor
if I could use the pics that I took
with my small digi-camera though I usually use pics
that I take with my SRL camera for my articles.
And I wrote with the term "Baka-Chon camera."
"Baka-Chon camera" is a general term for
small, inexpensive & easy-to-use camera,
which was a very usual term when I was living in Japan,
during '60s and '70s.
To my surprise, my editor wrote
"this is a forbidden term now,
because Baka means an idiot,
and Chon means a Korean.
So Baka-Chon camera means the camera that
even Idiots and Koreans can use.
I was totaly astonished
and I swear that I had no idea about this.


To be continued

moonlight & pizza

Last night, around 11, I had sudden craving for a pizza.
So I went to a corner pizza joint called "Two Boots",
which now has a several locations in New York,
but the very first is the one in my location.

Tow Boots
Click "Avenue A"

a middle aged film maker couple started
a small pizza place in mid '80s
because they had been tired of financially struggling.
In New York, most of young artists, actors and writers
work for restaurants as waiters
because it is one of a few occupations
that people can make a decent amount of money
without much special skills or experiences,
and it can also give them a flexible schedule.
Most of them do not like that job, who wants to be a servant?,
yet some of them choose to do the restaurant business
when they reach a certain age like 35 years old
and re-think about what they would do with rest of their lives
because they realize that's only business they really know
as they support themselves by being a waiter for many years.

During '80s, many restaurants like that opened in East Village.
Generally those people did/do not have much money.
So they painted the walls by themselves
and decorated with cheap plastic or antique furnitures and ornaments.
Those restaurants and cafes were called cheap-chic.
And some of them became quite successfull
with attracting very yappy clients.
That was the begining of commercialization of East Village.
Since then, this area has changed a lot.
Because more and more yappyish people have migrated here as residents,
rents have sky-rocketed.
Young artist type people are long gone,
they cannot afford to live in this neighborhood anymore.
and people do not have much money can not open a store here either.
Two Boots expanded their business,
like opening up a cute restaurant,
an indie film theatre and a video rental store too.
But in recent years,
they had to close them down because of the rent issue.
Now only pizza joint remains,
but they have 11 locations, even one in Los Angels.
so they are mosdef one of few success stories of that kind.
(Well, their pizza is goooood!)
Tokyo changes fairly quickly,
but some areas of New York have changes even more drastically,
all for people with money.

After I spent a little time in there
with a slice and a small cup of rootbear,
I walked back home,
and on my way I saw a beatiful moon
came out of the shadow of the dark building.
The same moon that I saw 20 years ago,
the same moon that I saw when I was in Japan,
the same moon that I saw when I was a little kid.
I said good night to her before I walked into my apartment building.




I have not posted anything here for a long time.
Well, I had been in a deep depression during the last winter
and I thought spring would help.
But when she came, she didn't.
I was still depressed.

In May, I finaly came out of it.
How did it happen, well I will explain it later.