BESAME MUCHO

The plum blossoms are here!

This title for this week's post goes out to the third year student who asked me to kiss him.  Apparently becoming a high school senior makes you both cocky and delusional.  A few days later I was treated to the attentions of a different student, who gave me his business card.  Never having owned business cards of my own, I felt a little out-classed by this 17 year-old.  Not to mention the fact that the last time a male gave me his card under an amorous pretext, he was about 26, and the card featured a clipart cartoon of Homer Simpson kicking a soccer ball.  

YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND IN ME

The BBC's website recently featured an interesting article on the ways in which people in Japan pay money for companionship and connection with another (not necessarily living) being.  The rented friends run a gamut, from playing with cats or dogs at a cafe, to single mothers who pay men to act as surrogate fathers.  These dads-for-hire help children with homework, take them on outings, mediate disputes with neighbors, and even pose with the moms as a happy couple for school interviews.  To me, this has all trappings of a potential Hollywood romcom: unemployed male meets hardworking single mom and falls in love with her and her offspring.  It's only time before Harvey Weinstein picks this one up and starts production.

Then there are the more salacious encounters, not all of which are sexual.  Some men employ women as hostesses at dinner, to provide conversation, flattery, and an empathetic ear.  Prostitution and escort services do of course exist, but flesh and blood partners are not a requisite for sexual gratification.  In fact, some popular Japanese fetishes include life-like plastic dolls, and even body pillows (as seen on a great episode of 30 Rock, featuring James Franco as a celebrity with a secret passion for his body pillow girlfriend, Komiko).  Stay tuned for a future post on other Japanese fetishes, which can be anything from creepy to hilarious to flat-out disgusting.

Despite ample opportunities for human interaction, particularly in urban areas, many people here still feel isolated and alone.  This may be a result of overwork limiting the amount of time people have to socialize, or an intrinsic shyness that pervades society.  A finger can also be pointed at technology, where cell phones, video games, online chatting, and anime (Japanese cartoons) take the place of face-to-face conversation, and cause people to become withdrawn, awkward, and in extreme cases can even lead to death.  Regardless of the causes, the fact that some people are so lonely that they have to pay in order to pretend they have a pet breaks my hardened heart.  Even The Grinch had Max!  

I'm pretty sure that heaven is redolent with the smell of plum blossoms

WE'RE REDNECKS, WE'RE REDNECKS...

When I first got to Japan, I received an invitation to a prefectural event.  Under "location" was written, "We'll meet at the yanki Lawson's and walk over from there."  Apparently there are two Lawson's stores in this small town, one of which is a major meeting place for the yankis.  Lawson's is a popular convenience store chain, like 7-11, but I had no idea what a yanki Lawson's was.  Yanki is a word based on the English word "yankee," and refers to a certain kind of Japanese subculture that's fairly common in my prefecture.  As the grannies in my adult English conversation group put it,  "They have their hair dyed, pierced ears.  They wear glittery things.  They look very flashy. They are also very young."  Another granny piped up, "Like hooligans!" An American equivalent would be the cast of "Jersey Shore," if they all rode motorcycles and hung out at convenience stores. 

At graduation this year, I had an opportunity to observe grown up yankis.  The father was dressed very nattily in a tightly tailored three piece suit.  He looked like a stockbroker, until you looked closer and saw his triple pierced ears and the heavy steel wallet chain that snaked down the side of his pants.  Then there was the mother, who had dyed her hair auburn, caked her face in makeup, and could barely see out of her thick, fake caterpillar-like eyelashes.  She sat for most of the ceremony trying to navigate her iPhone to take pictures, a process made difficult by her horrifically long nails, which had been filed into claws.  (I saw a woman with a similar manicure on the train the other day, and lived in fear of the moment that she might skewer the sweet and perfect baby who was strapped to her front.)  However, in some ways it's true that people are the same the world over, and when this couple's daughter walked by in the graduation procession, Yanki Papa leaped up with the camera and started taking photos, while mom waved proudly.