日本人と外国人は違っているところ

これは日本人です。　Hau japoniar bat da.   This is a Japanese.

これは外国人です。　Honako hau atzerritarra da.   This one is a foreigner.

wtf

After one whole year receiving money transfers from Europe, correction, getting calls from the bank every single time asking what the money was for and then, only then, having it put into my account, meaning my money was in limbo when I needed it everytime they couldn't reach me, I get this letter. Honestly, wtf?! Why do they say 'foreigner' when they mean 'criminal/terrorist'?

and then there was a police raid at our place...

Yes, I'll be moaning again. Yes, I'm cool now but I've been angry/let down again. Yes, racism has come my way twice recently, again. No, I'm not happy about it.

Pic edited from this one.

Last Thursday (happy birthday to me) I was out with a couple of friends in Kabukicho. I missed the last train, too bad, but then I remembered a mate left her bike at school and that I had the key as she won't be back in Japan any time soon. Right, I'll just ride home, as I always do. So I set off for school -a bare 10 minutes walk from Shinjuku Station-, take the bike and start pedaling towards Arakawa.

I'll spare you the details on my exquisiteness in what it comes to riding a bike, on me going on the pavement, slowly, 'cos it was dark and I know I'm cannon fodder to the ever so nice, smily and democratic Japanese police, especially at night. Oops, I didn't spare you the details there... Sorry! Anyway, I pass a Koban, a Koban where not so long ago a policeman stopped me because I had no light right after a Japanese -and therefor pure in his être- rider passed him without one either. Of course he didn't stop him because the poor thing had obviously forgotten his light, whereas I, the evil gaijin, was riding without one to shock Japanese grannies and challenge his authority. The good citizen riding before me had probably no job because a greedy foreigner like me had taken it from him after killing his babies and stealing his wife, and so he had no money for a torch. That's why he didn't stop him but he did me.

Well, I pass it and keep riding when I feel a presence behind me: it's two cops following me on their bikes. I stop. I won't even hear what they have to tell me, I know the shit they're going to spit so I just pull out my ID and tell them it's a friend's bike and that that is the 7th time they stop me and that I know it is because I'm a gaijin. Uneasiness follows, but they finish their representation of fake order keeping in a record time, order keeping that's actually more racial harassment or racial profiling, which I'm sure they already did in Arizona before all the fuss but are going to do entirily legally now. Of course they deny the reason for them pulling me over being racial but, in all this time I have only come to hear about them stopping one Japanese guy, and that was probably because they thought he was Korean or Chinese, as said by the Japanese guy himself.

It's unpleasant, makes me angry but I have to keep on going. I reach Tabata where I parked my own bike some hours before so I go fetch it. It's gonna take me 10 minutes walking from here with my -now- two bikes. I should've been more intelligent: a gaijing carrying to bikes at almost 2 in the morning! Bingo! So 15 minutes after the said nice encounter I walk by a police car stopped on one side of the street with its red lights on, escorted by the two bikes I'm pushing with both my hands. I don't know what they're doing at the side street but, apparently nothing as important as the highlight of their careers, something to be honored with an OBE at least, that'd be me, a gaijing, with two bikes. So they come after me.

I can't help but roll my eyes before I close them in front of the 2 cops. I also pant, loudly. They start ranting about the usual things as I slowly park the bikes, hand them my ID before they even ask for it and tell them pointing at one bike first, then the other, the names of the owners and let them know both of them are my friends. Then I go on by saying 'I have Japanese friends and none of them, nor their friends, nor the friends of their friends and families have ever been pulled over, stopped or asked anything regarding their bycicles. Never in their lifetime. This is the 8th time you stop me in 2 years and the 2nd in 15 minutes, and it is only because I'm a gaijin'.

My Japanese is obviously not that good, but that's what I say in my mind and they get it, 'cos they say sorry and let me go without even checking on the bikes' registration numbers.

...and then there was a police raid at our place.

That is sadly not all, folks. Yesterday morning there was a police raid at our place. They didn't even ask for permission to enter the house, they just went in with their smiles and good manners -and their guns, and their guns- searching for gaijins to register. I asked one of them if I'm already registered at the city council, what's the point of this and he said they needed the information for the local police. Alright, can't you get it from the city hall without molesting us? No, they have to make clear that being a foreigner in Japan is not for free, you've got to be constantly reminded they think you don't belong here. He said they shared no information with the city hall. Yeah, right.

It consisted on a green sheet -of which I should've taken a picture- you have to fill in, in which they explain no intromission is intended, but it didn't say you are not obligued to fill it in. That I learnt later. So you fill it in, name, address, occupation, arrival date, departure date... you hand it over and they're gone. They don't check your passport, I could have written I am Michael Jackson from Neverland and they would've gone away as happy and satisfied, so what's the point? You tell me.

I think it's the sideburns... I wish it was the sideburns, it is not but, I trimmed them just in case and so far, 36 hours after the raid, no other cop pulled me over.

Pic taken from debito.org

polizia beti polizi

Just a quick update to confirm what we all know. I was riding my bike with no light. I was riding just behind a Japanese guy who had no light either. We approach a koban* with a policeman standing outside in front of it. The Japanese guy with no light rides through but I get stopped and asked where mine is. This has been the 6th time a policeman pulls me over and the 1st time in which I actually was doing something not permitted, that is riding with no light. So was the Japanese guy riding before me but, my infraction is ten times worse: I am not Japanese.


On the other hand the weather is nice :) Can't wait for Hanami!

He's all worried because he just saw a gaijin**, and as we all know, gaijins are always up to no good. Photo found and modified from this one.

*police box
**foreigner

oi, there's something sticking out of my armpit!

 

 

It's some minutes before 9 am. I stop to take a picture of something I find interesting so I lean my bike against the wall. It is obvious I'm just stopping to take a picture, I have the camera in my hands, arms sticking out, looking through the LCD screen. It's a backstreet, not busy at all. 

A Japanese granny comes from behind and says something I don't understand. She repeats it 2 or 3 times more and starts pointing at my bike so I intelligently start to understand what she means -I'm level 4, I'm getting there-: you can't leave your bike here. 

The last time she says it she takes of her anti-allergy mask so that I can see her face, a face full of anger. She can't realize that I'm not leaving my bike there, obvious as it is she can't see that I'm only taking a picture, that it's only a matter of seconds until I'm finished. And she can't see all that because I'm a gaijin, a foreigner, and she doesn't like me. 

I'm all polite all the way until I see her face full of contempt, then she turns into an old rug from the respectful old lady she was. And I lose my nerve. I burst 'ちょっと待てね！' as in 'Can't you fucking wait?'. Not that I know how to swear in Japanese, but that's what I mean and she got it and walked away.

After a loooong day at school I set off on my bike again: I wanna get home, chill out. School is some 10k's from home, 45 minutes of an up and down mamachari ride. 

When I'm almost there the police pull me over. It's around 8 pm and I think 'Great, as I didn't cover my share of racism this morning!'. I get ready for 20 minutes of racist none sense, I know this, It's happened 4 times before. This time it's 3 policemen, it might take forever. But then one of them opens his snout and barks it is dangerous for me to go with the cars, that I should use the pavement. I think it's funny and slightly silly, as everybody goes with the cars, but it's nice of him, isn't it? And maybe suspicious too. 

I slowly eat my miss-conceptions and prejudices as he speaks and he slowly looks down to the registration number of the bike. Snap! I wasn't wrong at all. He starts talking about the bike, is the bike mine? I'm tired, I wanna get home and I remember the incident with the Wicked Witch of West Shinjuku this morning, so I lose it again. 'Aaaaah, is that it? It's always the same, isn't it? It is because I'm a gaijin? Do you wanna see the papers?'. I'm amazed at my Japanese that moment. He goes 'Oh, have you got the papers?', as in 'Wow, we found an intelligent one!'. 

So they check the papers, everything's in order and they set me free letting go a thousand 'Sumimasen', 'Gomendasai' and 'Ki wo tsukete's. They can apologize as long as they want: they stopped me because I'm white, I know it, they know it, but they don't give a flying shit. I have never ever seen a Japanese and his/her bike being stopped before. I've been stopped FIVE times.

Anyway, not matter how hard some (just a few of them) try, I still love this city. So they're gonna fail all the way.