Random Thoughts

This post is the answer to the comment
some annoymous person made to my last post.

>its fascinating that you are a japanese who went to america to kind to 'escape', usually its the other way around.. a westerner who goes to japan (or some part of asia, or anywhere in the world for that fact).

The biggest reason for the mass immigration is
alway the financial opportunity
though some immigrants claim it is political assylum for them,
still the reason they choose US to come is
the finacial opportunity.
They watched Hollywood films to believe
all Americans are living in big houses
with a big yard of green lawn.

Japanese used to immigrate for the same reason to US,
however, it ceased when the war broke out between two countries.
Now Japan has a wealthy society
even though their economical growth stagnated in early '90s,
they still have #2 GDP in the world.
So there is not much reason for Japanese to immigrate to US
as an immigrat of the traditional sense,
just like Italians and Irish used to immigrate to US in masses,
but no longer they do that
as they have much wealthier societies compared to those times.

However, still many Japanese come to US
because in Japanese medias,
glamorous images of America cultures are flooded,
which make many Japanese fascinated
with the idea to come to US.

You can call that 'escape'
if you call the reason Americans come to Asia 'escape'
And just like many of Americans go back to US after a while,
most of Japanese go back to Japan as well
as they realize how hard to be accepted by the society,
and humans have a deep desire to be accepted by one.
If you are an immigrant of the traditonal sense
who immigrated for the financial opportunity,
you try to make it there
no matter what kind of issues you have to face,
like language, race, legal status and cultural difference.
On the other hand, if you are am American, a Japanese
or anyone from wealthier countries,
you always have a choice to go back to your countries
where you do not have to face many of those issues.
Well, I do not say "all of",
especially if you are not a White person in US.

>the problems are the same wherever we go, i suppose.

I %100 agree with that.
As being a foreinger means being an outsider,
our desire to be accepted can give you so much headache.
We want to be accepted by others,
we want to be veryfied by others,
we want to be connected with others,
but then that is what we crave in our own countries too.

And also your personal issues follow you anywhere you go.
For exapmle, if you are a very shy,
not so positive or active person,
and you think that is the reason
that you feel you are alienated in your own society,
going to other country does not solve any of those.

>i can sympathize with some problems you encounter. my parents were immigrants from asia, and even though i spoke fluently, i also encountered some stereotypes and confusion from people who didn't know any better,

I wrote a series of articles about immigrants in US
for a Japanese publication a few years ago
and interviewed many people
like Chinese, Koreans and people from Latin Americas,
also watched some interesting documentaries
about the immigrants communities in US.
If you are not White(or Black),
people ask you where you are from, means which country you are from
ask whether you speak English or not
even if you are a person who was born and raised here.
I think that can be a very humiliating experience too.

>but... there are good people out there, not only ignorant or unreasonable ones. hopefully you will meet some soon.

That is very true.
Actually I met many people like that.
And I never thought Americans are more racistic than Japanese
as things like racism and prejudice can exist anywhere.
I say the racism itself does not descriminate.
However, whether that person is nice ot not,
and whether that he/she is prejudical
on some subjects are a bit different issues.
Some people can be very nice
and very prejudical at the same time.

>anyway, i just wanted to say i hope you find your happiness soon. dont give up.

Thanks for your kind words!
I really appreciate.
And to be honest, my biggest problem is my career right now,
not the US society.
In 2007 and 2008, I wrote monthly articles
for a magazine from the Japanese major publisher,
which allow me to do whatever I like to do.
It was tough work but I really enjoyed.
However, that magazine folded at the end of 2009.
Now in Japan, most of decent magazines have disappeared
because of the impact of the internet and other issues.
I like to write about the realities of this society
but no Japanese media let me do that.
You may think American media is bad,
but Japanese media is much much worse.
The true journalism is basically dying there.
In 2009, I did nothing but withdrawing because of that,
and felt like being stuck
in the darkest tunnel without any exit.
Right now I am in the process of
digging myself out of this pit.
How? I do not know.