Do Japanese have a problem with Foreigners?

This is definitely not a yes/no answer to that question...

I think its easiest to say "The Japanese love foreigners." They embrace American culture as if it were their own. When an American music artist showcases in Tokyo they can charge easily close to $100 a ticket and still sell out the theather even if its a lesser known or less popular artist. The music culture sometimes makes you wonder, "What happened to the Japanese music?" It seems at some point like it stopped developing held onto its traditional form and from there split off into a booming branch of western style music which ranges from Jazz & hip hop to punk & metal. Honestly the list is massive when it comes to music. One stroll through Shibuya makes this fact immediately obvious. Poke your head into a club and your bound to find Japanese in their 20s-30s decked out with Timbs, cornrows, dreads, the usual baggy ass hangs-out jeans & shirt long enough to cover it--girls are no exception to that wardrobe. That being said, you'll just as easily find goths (increasingly popular goth-girls), punked/rocked out guys, or whatever you can imagine. They embrace American pop culture. This extends further to their movie scene (Johnny Depp is an idol; as well as ブラピ=Burapi aka Brad Pitt), television (24 is huuuge and The O.C. just started its rise), fashion (though to be fair Tokyo has a huge fashion scene and it changes/evolves ***FAST***)... honestly theirs no point in laundry listing all the things the 現代人(modern persons) have come to embrace. Instead let's focus on the strongest example first...

Japanese are convinced that the words they spell in katakana (アイエオウ vs hirigana あいえおう) are Japanese. This results in very annoying situations as well as very amusing situations. I get annoyed when someone proceeds to assume I don't know a words that they use (and is spelled in Katakana) or they go off on a huge explanation when all that would be necessary is saying "its in katakana" that way when you hear someone say "se-o-ri" rather than think "What the hell is seori..." instead, as if it were spanish or french, you do a backwards conversion an realize the word is "Theory." Last spring break I was in Kobe's train station and trying to figure out where I could check my bags between trains while I explored the city. So I proceeded to ask where a place to store my bags was. The response was that the "ロッカー" =
"Rowk-Ka" were "over there." My first thought was what the hell is a Rokka? I had no clue. Eventually after some attempt to explain, I was led by one of the station staff to the ***lockers***.... Rokka = Locker. I laughed to myself and made the mental note...

The list of Katakana words from english or what I'd call Janglish is immense. Adjectives seem to be popular conversions as well as technical words. The surprising this though is that words that exist in Japanese are increasingly converting to english words. Yesterday I heard someone say エンジニア [ ENJINIA ] but last time I checked the word ぎし (GISHI) is the Japanese word for Engineer... I'm all for borrowing words (80% of English active vocabulary comes from French) but sometimes I feel ridiculous saying things like "ii aidea!" = good idea rather than use of the Japanese word "ii kangae." That being said, I've been corrected both ways (aidea <---> kangae) by teachers and Japanese friends to use the other one. I'm not going to lie though; I love the reaction when someone says "What? you know that word?" and I smile and say "Yeah, its from english" and they says "Wow? Reaaally?" almost in disbelief. They don't borrow the words; they assimilate them. I guess its no different than when we speak without realizing that a French person realizes 80% of our active vocabulary was stolen from French.

Sorry a little side tracked... so my point was that a culture that assimilates foreign words into their active vocabulary generally doesn't hold distaste for foreigners.

Well let's take a look at the opposite end. The thought that Japanese *might* have a problem with foreigners never really came to mind until I attempted to walk into Club Heaven in Osaka and promptly received the gesture in Japan for "no" (arms crossed with fist closed forming an X). Then some broken English and a finger pointed towards the door which together amounted to "Foreigners are not allowed here" or "No Gaijin" to quote. I've got two opinions about these type of locations. 1) Its ridiculous and the Japanese version of segregation or Jim-Crow-locations. 2) Japanese sometime need refuge from the crazy college frat boys that terrorize Roppongi doori for example and whose presence encouraged the Yakuza (Japanese gangsta-businessmen = mafia) to start up the cocaine and ecstasy market. Its simply creating a safe area. That being said; that kind of establishment would not be tolerated in America no matter what the excuse is. How many people could easily make the argument that since Jails are proportionally full of minorities, we could decrease crime in an area by simply not allowing minorities in an area... I clearly have some serious problems with that kind of an argument so I'm not one to support these nihonjin only bars.

My other issue involves in the use of the word gaijin. I don't call Japanese "Japs" yet the use of the word Gaijin which was once considered foul language (contraction of the word gaikokujin meaning outside-country-person) has become more and more accepted as a normal word. Conversations include a little kid at a Zoo who refered to my greeting of "konnitiwa" by saying something to his mom about "Its because he's a Gaijin-San" a Mr.Foreigner? WTF? The parents have somehow cultured the kid's mind to completely categorize foreigners.

My second experience was a very short statement by a new acquaintance while she was on the phone asking for recommendations from a friend of hers. Her friend asked something along the lines of "Who needs a recommendation?" and she said "外人なんですよ．” Which means "it's that they are gaijin." Or "they are Gaijin-people." That extra なん (nan) makes a huuuge difference.

The 3rd experience was an odd fellow at a pharmacy who looked at me and says "Hiyakeshita! A, sou ka. gaijin da. gomen nasai... gaijin da. gomen nasai" = "you're sunburnt!" (fyi, I'm
Black). "Oh, I see, you're a foreigner. I'm so sorry! You're a foreigner! I'm soo sorry!" As if he was expressing pity because I was a foreigner as opposed to apologizing for what he said which usually involves a completely different sentence construction. i.e. (間違えて、ごめんなさい・間違えて、すみませんでした．)

There's a 4th much broader set that involves speech styles. For now...

続く - to be continued