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On my last night in Tokyo, I was lucky enough to be invited along to find Tokyo's Nichoume neighborhood, which is essentially the "gay part of town." I was tired and starving and it was late, but I really wanted to see it!
I'd read on another ALT's blog that Japan still holds homosexuality at arm's length because it strays from the "social norm," but it doesn't have the prescribed hate for it that some parts of America have on account of the Christian foundation in the U.S. I'm told that there's all sorts of interesting sociological essays on the topic, but I haven't read any of them.
Initially, one of the girls I'd gone with to see the gundam and I were following a group of boys headed to a specific gay bar called "Dragon" in English. I had an interesting conversation with a particularly flamboyant guy who said he was always amused in Japan because people in the U.S. always took one look at him and instantly knew he was gay, whereas all the times he'd been to Japan, no one had any idea because their culture is so different from ours. I've been told that overall Japanese high school boys actually do a lot of experimentation with gender expression, which is pretty cool. They have no problem hanging all over each other and showing affection and being cutesy (which isn't surprising, what with the universal affinity for cuteness in Japan). My predecessor said that during English camp it was totally acceptable when one of the boys wore the bonnet from a maid costume for the entire weekend and nobody thought it was strange. I guess when they grow up though, they turn into the stifled businessmen we think of stereotypically. As far girls, I've heard nothing, but that's not surprising that their embrace of cuteness is acceptable life long. As far as lesbian culture, I also know nothing.
Nichoumei, as it was, is quite reminiscent of our gay bar districts in the states, with playful names for the clubs like, "Pink Kiss," "MAN-soon" (get it, monsoon?), "Dragon," "Queen," and so on. We got a few funny looks, seeing as it's not a place foreigners often go, especially women (it's mostly men's bars, though there are a few lesbian bars too). One man stopped every 5 feet to stare at us in bewilderment. We found Dragon and it had a charming interior with a beautiful mixed-media dragon with glowing eyes slithering across the ceiling, and what I'm going to call a "penis butterfly" painted on the wall, flying its way through a fairyland drawn in glow-in-the-dark paint.
By then I was really starving, so we went to a conbini (convenience store) to pick up a bentou (boxed lunch). It was really fun sitting on the street corner having a picnic. I think the locals got a kick out of seeing me do that, too. Unfortunately, I didn't chose my bentou wisely and got a bentou with all fried foods and a "melon milk" drink, which made me pretty sick because in the ingredient list I mistook the word for "corn syrup" as the word for "grape juice." So I thought I was getting something healthy, but really I was getting a sugar typhoon stomach ache...
I'm really glad I went, not only because I was able to take a picture with the Japanese Harry Potter movie poster on the way and a stuffed llama vending machine, but because I got to see a little bit of international gay pride. Granted, Tokyo is a metropolitan city, so it may not be like that all over Japan, but just like in the States, gay people are people too.
I'd read on another ALT's blog that Japan still holds homosexuality at arm's length because it strays from the "social norm," but it doesn't have the prescribed hate for it that some parts of America have on account of the Christian foundation in the U.S. I'm told that there's all sorts of interesting sociological essays on the topic, but I haven't read any of them.
Initially, one of the girls I'd gone with to see the gundam and I were following a group of boys headed to a specific gay bar called "Dragon" in English. I had an interesting conversation with a particularly flamboyant guy who said he was always amused in Japan because people in the U.S. always took one look at him and instantly knew he was gay, whereas all the times he'd been to Japan, no one had any idea because their culture is so different from ours. I've been told that overall Japanese high school boys actually do a lot of experimentation with gender expression, which is pretty cool. They have no problem hanging all over each other and showing affection and being cutesy (which isn't surprising, what with the universal affinity for cuteness in Japan). My predecessor said that during English camp it was totally acceptable when one of the boys wore the bonnet from a maid costume for the entire weekend and nobody thought it was strange. I guess when they grow up though, they turn into the stifled businessmen we think of stereotypically. As far girls, I've heard nothing, but that's not surprising that their embrace of cuteness is acceptable life long. As far as lesbian culture, I also know nothing.
Nichoumei, as it was, is quite reminiscent of our gay bar districts in the states, with playful names for the clubs like, "Pink Kiss," "MAN-soon" (get it, monsoon?), "Dragon," "Queen," and so on. We got a few funny looks, seeing as it's not a place foreigners often go, especially women (it's mostly men's bars, though there are a few lesbian bars too). One man stopped every 5 feet to stare at us in bewilderment. We found Dragon and it had a charming interior with a beautiful mixed-media dragon with glowing eyes slithering across the ceiling, and what I'm going to call a "penis butterfly" painted on the wall, flying its way through a fairyland drawn in glow-in-the-dark paint.
By then I was really starving, so we went to a conbini (convenience store) to pick up a bentou (boxed lunch). It was really fun sitting on the street corner having a picnic. I think the locals got a kick out of seeing me do that, too. Unfortunately, I didn't chose my bentou wisely and got a bentou with all fried foods and a "melon milk" drink, which made me pretty sick because in the ingredient list I mistook the word for "corn syrup" as the word for "grape juice." So I thought I was getting something healthy, but really I was getting a sugar typhoon stomach ache...
I'm really glad I went, not only because I was able to take a picture with the Japanese Harry Potter movie poster on the way and a stuffed llama vending machine, but because I got to see a little bit of international gay pride. Granted, Tokyo is a metropolitan city, so it may not be like that all over Japan, but just like in the States, gay people are people too.
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