Sunday night
Hmm, it’s been two and a half years since I started this blog. I’m not quite sure who reads it… it’s a terrible mishmash of animeshipping and rather pointless angsting. Only the animeshipping is of value :P
Anyway, my last couple of posts have been rather bleak. Rest assured people (the one of two of you who bother to wade through this), I am well and alive, and no I do not intend to kill either myself or someone else. Life isn’t that bad, work isn’t an awful meat grinder, and the gf is fine when she’s not moody, which is pretty much the case for all females, hah.
A post on a friend’s blog about working out the differences in an inter-cultural relationship prompted me to put down my thoughts as well. Yes, with my level of Japanese and based upon the very positive reactions from friends whenever I delivered my quirky gaijin humour, I didn’t think cultural or communication difficulties would arise. Well, I was wrong.
Actually, it’s not just purely cultural or language disparities. Upbringing counts highly too, and of course even people from the same country will fight over trivial differences. In my case, however, not knowing what is cultural and what is personality-based is frustrating as all heck, for the both of us. That’s something the we have to work to overcome, but dang it, I wish there was more tolerance on the other side. Japanese people, even those who profess to gaijin admiration, are surprisingly narrow-minded about acceptable behaviour. Whereas in the US, being different is simply being different (unless it impacts your work), in Japan, being different is either a cute quirk, or it’s a problem that should be fixed.
Hmm, I’m probably guilty of overgeneralization there. I guess the main lesson is, it’s hard living with someone, and it’s even harder when you don’t communicate on the same level. Still can’t find a good way of working it out… Most things still tend to come out as accusations, and that builds helpless confusion and resentment. Gotta just hang in there, and remember that difference is half the fun, and indeed much of the reason for initial attraction.
BTW, Monster Hunter Frontier is surprisingly addictive. If even I, the jaded gamer, find myself going on quest after quest to collect materials and cash for new equipment, you know they have a real hit.
Of course, don’t change the fact that the gf is playing like 70 hours of MHF a week, to my consternation >_< damn gaming addicts
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