My Thoughts on Japan’s Half-Black Miss Universe

Living in Japan I have had so many of my stereotypes about Japanese people tested and broken, and I’m so delighted to have one of my deepest, darkest beliefs tested once again.

In March, Ariana Miyamoto, a mixed-race woman of Japanese and African-American descent, was crowned Miss Universe Japan.

Japan…I’m amazed!

Issues with beauty pageants aside, I never expected Japan to place a black or even half black woman in such a position. In my four years here, I have watched Japan stretch and grow and change for the better, becoming more inclusive and making more effort to respect other cultures, but I had no idea the country was capable of this.

While living here, I’ve come to realize that, as in many other parts of the world, there is a bias toward Anglo features when it comes to determining beauty. The most visible representation of this is in Japanese anime. You would think a country as homogeneous as Japan would almost exclusively feature protagonists that look just like them in their animation right? But Japanese anime is full of blond-haired beauties and dashing blue-eyed heroes.  And you’ll rarely find a black character at all, much less as a main character.

So to see Ms. Miyamoto crowned was extremely, pleasantly shocking for me. However, she has faced some backlash. By her own admission the reception has been mixed, with a number of people saying she shouldn’t have won because she’s not “really Japanese”. But I’m still so happy that she was chosen.

There are so many things I love about Japan, and the racial issues have been one of the things that hurt my heart while living here. I’m really rooting for Japan when it comes to being more flexible and considerate in regards to other cultures, so this has me grinning from ear to ear.

Way to go Japan! And congratulations Ms. Miyamoto!

My Feature on InterNations

Check me out!

Here’s an interview I did for InterNations, which is a great site that connects expats from around the world.

Here’s my interview, in which I talk about getting ready to move to Japan, my favorite blog post and one of the funniest things to happen to me out here.

Click here to read it!

 

Kohama Island: A Hidden Paradise

Kohama Island has muscled it’s way into the top five most beautiful places I have ever been. This place is GORGEOUS!

See? SEE?

It’s a small island near Ishigaki, Okinawa, which probably has more tourists than residents. Two resorts take up a big chunk of the Island, and I stayed at the bigger one, Haimurubushi. The beauty of Kohama island is that it’s not so crowded. I’ll admit, we visited the island off season, right before Golden week so I’m sure that had something to do with it. But it’s also not that well known.

There isn’t so much to do there besides relax, and that was fine with me. In fact one of my best memories of the vacation was lying in a hammock watching the sun turn the clouds orange as it set, the sounds of tropical birds calling, as if I was inside one of those “soothing sounds of nature” CDs. It was unreal. But we did get off our butts long enough to take a day trip to a sandbar to go snorkeling.

It was such a chore, but somehow we managed

It was also fun to ride around the island to visit the one convenience store,, the site of the TV drama Churasan, and Mt. Ufudaki. The weather was perfect: warm but not humid. And the sky was so clear and blue, it just made everything on the island look so…happy. Riding around on the electric bicycle rented from the resort, I couldn’t keep the smile off my face.

But the highlight of the trip? Stargazing, though it wasn’t easy to make it happen. Haimurubushi’s beach is about ten minutes walk from the rooms, which normally wouldn’t be a problem. But the path there is unlit, and surrounded by tall grass where all kinds of creatures quacked, and croaked and chirped and rustled, and we had only a tiny, blue lantern that cast moving shadows as its light it hit the bushes.

But my friend and I just laughed about how creepy it was, and how were were such big babies, that is until the bushes on the left side rustled, and then the right, and suddenly I remembered something about an endangered jungle cat that was supposed to live in Okinawa…

Heads down, it was all business as we speed-walked until we finally saw the lights that designated the beach’s seating area, and then heard the sound of the waves. And when we stepped onto the sand and looked up, it was worth it.

The sky was dusted with stars, so many I had to wonder where they all came from. Where they really just always there, impossible to see because of the city lights? We stared up in awe, the only sound the soft rush of the waves against the shore. Had we been living under this fairyland this whole time? And on top of that, the moon was red that night. It shone above the ocean like a ruby, leaving a shimmering, crimson ray of light on the water.

Paradise.

I would go back tomorrow if I could. So if you ever have a chance to visit Japan, and Okinawa, I highly recommend Kohama Island.

 

 

 

How I faced my fears and moved to Japan

**Originally posted Nov 7, 2011

If you’re wondering if you too can take on life as an expat in the country you’ve been admiring from afar, the answer is yes, you can.

Really!

Here’s the thing: My trip to Japan actually started years before I even set foot on the plane. I’d heard about the Japan Exchange and Teaching program (more commonly known as JET) in my first year of University, and given my love at the time for everything I knew about Japan (which was pretty much Final Fantasy, Dragon Ball Z and neon leg warmers) I was determined to sign on once I had the required degree. But…I was scared. At that point I don’t think I’d even been away from my parent’s house for more than a week. Plus I’d been researching — reading about what life was like for foreigners in Japan on blogs and forums, and it wasn’t always positive. Mixed in with stories about ultimate temple crawling and sushi so delicious it could bring peace to the Middle East were anecdotes about racism in Japan: TV shows that catered to stereotypes, Black Sambo dolls, Mr. James (a caricature of a clueless Caucasian foreigner used in a McDonald’s ad campaign) and silly questions and comments like, “do you play basketball?” (if you’re a black foreigner), or “foreigners can’t learn Japanese”.

Fast forward four years and I’d graduated from University, but I needed internship experience to get my journalism diploma from the college I had also been fast tracking through at the time. And that’s how I found myself in an office, working that 9-5, instead of saying a teary goodbye to my family at the airport.

I finished the internship, but stayed on to pay my student loans. One year at the company turned into two, and then three, and suddenly I found myself stressed out over deadlines wondering “whatever happened to Japan?” I started researching English Conversation schools because I knew that if I worked with JET I’d probably get sent out to the middle of nowhere where no one spoke English, and moving to Japan was already tough enough.  Finally, after spending a fitful night worrying about an issue I would have to fix at work on Monday, I woke up one Sunday morning, turned on my computer and just applied online to the school that seemed the best fit.

It’s just an application. I told myself. Even if I do get an interview I don’t have to go.

Well, a couple of days later I got an email, and sure enough I did get an interview, and I did in fact go. I told myself:

I’m just going to the interview; I might not even get the job. And if I do, I don’t have to accept it.

But strangely enough, after the interview the fear started to give way to excitement, and I found myself really hoping that I got the job. Even though the interviewer said it would take about two weeks for them to let me know, I couldn’t help checking my email every day until finally I got the answer I’d been both hoping for and dreading: I had gotten the job, and if I accepted I’d be moving to Japan.

Ah yes, now there was a serious decision to make, but once again I just had to trick my brain into believing it was no big deal: I’ll say yes to the job, I can always back out if I change my mind, and I can always move home if I hate living in Japan.

And armed with the knowledge that nothing is forever I was able to take that leap across the globe, and now no matter what happens, I’ll never have to wonder what it would have been like if I had moved to Japan.

I can’t say life here has been perfect, it’s been challenging as you’ll see in some of my other blog posts, but the fact that this is the challenge I chose makes it easier for me to face it. And I’ve only been here ten months, but I feel I’ve learned so much about myself, and gained a lot of confidence too.  I guess successfully navigating life in a foreign country will do that to you.

So I say if you’re thinking about moving abroad, and there aren’t any tangible obligations holding you back (such as a family) then why not take that first step? After all you don’t have to go through with it…but you probably will.