reality FRUiTS

the alcoholics of Japan. often something you don't see until you get your feet off the shinkansen and into the dimly late city streets of Japan. pretty similar to homelessness in california and drug addicts in seattle; you won't know until you're in the know.

when i study in kyoto, inevitably either through college or an english teaching program, i won't go anywhere at night without my digital camera. or better yet, as drinking is so normalized in japan and seeing as my body will never ever take any foreign substance against my own will, i'll already be excluded by coworkers and peers alike. so, what's the point in not further distancing myself and documenting the people that suffer and fall victim to a cyclical hysteria of systemic alcoholism.

japan isn't otaku. japan isn't persona. japan isn't chainsaw man. japan is the legal age of consent being 13. japan is the suspiciously low crime rate. japan is shinzo abe. i am not shinzo abe.

japan is 'Hysteric Glamour'. your 'waifu' is 12 and all of your favorite anime is centered around high school because almost all of Japanese citizens survey that the happiest time in their lives; their peak; was high school.

japan is not totoro and howl. japan is not and never will be a niche film you found because you were looking, trying to be different. no one is different in Japan.

the only thing i can do is mentally send my empathy to the youth of now and then in Japan, and what they hear, endure, and are taught every day.

why have a child when you need to work? if you have a child, you need to work. you need to pay for daycare if you need to work but have a child. you'll never see your kid apart from government holidays because all you do is work and all they do is study for their next entrance exam.

japan is not welcoming. japan is not LGBTQ+. japan is the closest to facism as a first world country out of any country that interacts with other first world countries. "NO MORE FOREIGNERS" the old men with trucks and trams and trolleys and busses with megaphones and banners and litter literature will shout and scream and parade through the claustrophobic streets of the cities.

and yet, you still want japan. you yearn and you crave and you dream and you gleam.

japan is not anime. anime is not japan.