The Walking Dead and Well-Shod Transvestites

Dead Gaijin Walking

One of the things that drew my attention when I first arrived in Tokyo was the expression that I saw on the faces of many gaijin.

Let me back it up:

The thing that I noticed before I noticed the expression on the faces of the gaijin was the lack of expression on the faces of the natives. I would watch people on the train (much to their discomfort, as gaijin make more eye contact in general than do the natives). I was trying to watch for the familiar signs of life, those big American expressions that indicate feeling: the raised eyebrows, the enormous grins, the narrowed eyes that indicate frustration or anger. Well, those things are absent here. The Japanese control their faces to such an extent that I couldn't read any expressions at all. It took a few months before I could back down from the big American expressions and begin to see annoyance, fatigue, happiness on Japanese faces.

But the expressions are still, to my eye, often very subtle--especially in public. I still have to watch very carefully.

Now cue the gaijin:

When I first arrived, I would see gaijin from time to time. I would always think, I blend, baby. But you? You stand out like a sore thumb. (This was The Delusional Brain at its finest, those thoughts.) But the expression on the faces of some of the gaijin puzzled me. They looked like the walking dead. In fact, they looked deader than the walking dead, because the walking dead are usually out hunting for brains to eat and when they encounter said brains, they get this look of utter delight on their faces. Honto. I've seen it in the movies. But here? Deader than the walking dead expressions on the gaijin.

What was that about?

In time, I realized that what the gaijin in this town do is adapt. They start to sprinkle "mmm" into their conversation. They learn to apologize before and for everything. They bow to telephones and as they get on and off elevators. Their deadened expressions are an attempt at this kind of adaptation. I have adapted similarly. April, while she was visiting, interpreted it as stress. It was, to a certain extent, stress, but it was also this deadening of my expression that I've adopted in an attempt to fit in here.

Be warned. I don't want to eat your brains, but I do look like I might consider it if Shop QQ runs out of dodgy pizza.

Trannies?

As long as I'm on the subject of the walking dead, I may as well mention that I saw, in Ginza station yesterday, what I would swear was a transvestite.

Okay, now I've actually seen transvestities in Japan--Shinjuku Ni-chome during the Gay Pride Festival was filled to bursting with them, but honto ni, this was a woman walking to work. She was tall, and very carefully made up in the way that transvestites often make themselves up, so that they're just this side of parody. And those shoes? Well, they were mail order for sure, because her foot was bigger than mine. If I had had the Japanese, I would've stopped her and asked where she got the sandals, because I'm jonesing for a new pair of boots, and, man, size ten women's shoes in Japan? Not so much.

But transvestites? In Tokyo? Sometimes this place amazes me. It still has that power, ne?

Ne.