Quote:
Originally Posted by samurai007
First, like everyone else has said, the OP really should do something about this if it's as serious as he claims. Avoid Japan websites, seek professional help, something.
Second, if you go to Japan and don't want to see foreigners, get the heck out of Tokyo, or any other large cities! Akihabara is going to have lots of foreigners, if you look for them, it's a tourist magnet in Tokyo! Go into the mountains, go to some seaside fishing village, don't go to any city with more than 150,000 people or any very popular tourist destination (like Miyajima Island), and you're very unlikely to run into foreigners. Stay well off the beaten path!
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I'd guess it would help, going to these places. But the people who want to, are close to, or go nuts about wanting to visit / live in Japan have probably even more influence over me back home. And just knowing that somewhere very close is flowing with foreigners would probably pull me back like a magnet, just so I could get maybe that one more foreigner count. I do rely a lot on statistics to calm my obsession.
Quote:
Originally Posted by samurai007
Next, try to realize that these are simply fellow foreigners with an interest and love of Japan, same as you. Maybe they haven't broken beyond the stage of appreciating anime and j-pop yet, but everyone starts somewhere. And if they cared enough to go and visit Japan, then they are likely having a fun vacation and enjoying the sights in a place they've longed to visit... shouldn't you do the same, rather than worry about them?
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Others here have tried to get me down and failed... but a passage like this makes me feel
very uneasy, especially the last sentence. Don't get me wrong, it's nothing against you. It's just that something like this... is something that makes me uneasy. I know that'll make me look horrible... but please try not to take it the wrong way, I'm just being straight out honest. :/
I know too that I should do the same, but if I could it wouldn't be the obsession that it is today... it's just easier said than done.
Quote:
Originally Posted by samurai007
Finally, when I was living in Japan, I lived in a small town. I got the stares from Japanese people, the amazed "what is a foreigner doing here? He must be lost..." But I didn't mind meeting other foreigners at all! In fact, I felt an instant kindred relationship with them, even if they weren't from America like me. I went out of my way to talk to them, help them if they needed it (because I probably had more experience there than they did), etc. Believe it or not, it can get lonely being a minority of 1 in a country where you hardly speak the language and stick out like a sore thumb. It was always nice to see another gaijin, because they probably had at least some of the same feelings and experiences I had, and that gave us a bond.
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Although it'd probably never get to that stage, I'd love to be the kind of person you are. The type of person who actually likes the sight of another foreigner.
I just think that doing that though would make it worse.
Believe it or not, when I was in Tokyo an American family from my hotel invited me out with them for the day. I accepted, because they were nice. I also accepted because I
TRIED to see if bonding with foreigners in Tokyo would get me over the obsession. I had a good day with them, they were even kind enough to treat me to my first ever snowcone. Then I waved them off later in the day when they left the hotel to spend the rest of their trip in Kyoto.
It was a great day.
But alas, it did absolutely nothing to my obsession. I was tracking foreigners while I was walking around with them (discreetly of course), and when the day was over, it was back to the counting the very next day. Not even full exposure on a day out with foreigners in Tokyo could change how deep this obsession has taken root. :/