Quote Originally Posted by Mikalia42 View Post
Interesting!

My first experience traveling ALONE was when I traveled to Japan while active duty in the Navy. (I'd been to Canada as a teenager with my father.) I was stationed in Yokosuka, Japan (which is less than an hour out from Tokyo). That city is used to military personnel, for sure. However, in more outlying areas and even some parts of Tokyo, Black people aren't very common. I remember walking through Harajaku (a "borough" of Tokyo) and getting stared at. Not merely because my skin was dark (and at the height of summer, I was EXTRA dark thanks to sunlight), but A) at 5'8" I pretty much dwarfed most of the population and B) I was (and still am) fairly thin, so they thought I was a model from overseas. Led to a lot of opening of doors, "parting of seas" while walking and free entry into clubs. Also led to getting hit on/picked up by a lot of working class guys AND "upper tier" businessmen. None of which I dated, but the attention was flattering. NOT ONCE had I encountered out-and-out racism from the Japanese at all.
I had a similar experience in Japan. I went to Hokkaido Japan for a month as part of a study abroad experience. Before I left people who had never even been there before kept telling me how racist they would be and to 'watch out'. I also went there natural (during my first attempt with it). I wore cornrows and I remember a few members of my family not liking the look, but the Japanese really loved it. Everywhere I went girls oohed and awed over my hair and wanted to touch it. And of course I stood out big time being black and all, but people seem to really like that too.

Once I was walking to my class and a guy driving by in his car literally stopped in the middle of the street, leaned out his window and was like "Hiiiii!" Another time I was heading off to class and a man stopped me in the street just to talk (and I suspect practice his English too ) But the best experience I had there happened in a classroom full of children. Since my study abroad experience was under the education department at my university, we were given tours of local Japanese schools at every grade level. One day while me and the rest of the American students were visiting a class of 4th graders, a cute little girl turned around, rubbed the hand of my classmate (the only other African American on the trip) and said something in Japanese. We asked our translator to tell us what she said, and he told us the little girl said that she wanted to touch my friend just to see that she was real.

Both of us teared up when he told us this. That was when it really hit home that for most of those kids we were the first black people they had ever seen outside of TV. To this day I am so grateful that their first experience with people with black ancestry was a positive one. By the way, she was rocking natural hair on the trip too