You Can’t Enjoy The View In Japan

No Window Seats In Japan! Japan might be better known as the land of the rising sun but you might as well say goodbye to sunlight in Japan! Japanese people especially women absolutely hate the sun! 

Imagine you’re a tourist or a resident here thinking you’ll get to enjoy the beautiful view of mountains, skyscrapers, traditional Japanese style homes, rice fields, rivers, bridges, fields of flowers or just some good old people and traffic watching. WRONG! Some asshole will pull down the shades (why even give people this option) if they are seated besides you. 
Sometimes they don’t care and or they’ll clearly see that you’re looking outside or assume that because you’re clearly not Asian you couldn’t possibly understand what they’d like for you to do.

I understand you think that having a ghostly complexion is attractive just like most where I'm from white people think looking like a bronze or orange statue is appealing to each his or her own (I’ll talk about my ethnicity more below).

Anyway I think it’s ridiculous to never enjoy the scenery and the beautiful view while on the train especially for extend trips more than 30 minutes on the train.

The crazy thing is Japanese people are incredibly shy so I’d think you’d want to have a window to look out of instead of creepishly (OMG that’s not a real word!) starring at the person across from you or checking fake notifications on your phone and scrolling through the same Instagram, Facebook posts, and Tweets.

Shade Battle

I recently had my own incident on the train. It was childish and I should have been the bigger person, but I also think that Japanese people should be more considerate of the other passengers on board too! I am not proud of how I handled this situation but my perspective clearly wasn't being seen or understood.

It was a sunny afternoon around lunchtime when I had boarded the Hankyu Kyoto Main Line train from Umeda Station. I was fortunate enough to have arrived early enough to grab a seat. Unfortunately I made the big mistake of choosing a 4 seater area (2 sets of seats facing each other). I didn't really care too much because I had the window seat (which I always prefer) so I pulled up the shade the moment I sat down. I was in the back of the car against the wall which gave me ample privacy and space. I purposefully chose this seat instead of an aisle seat so that I'd have a view of the mountains, people, cars, the sky, buildings, and the platforms of stations that we were passing. Also there wouldn't be any reason for someone to accidentally hit or bump into me and I wouldn't need to move to help someone get off to or out of their seat since I would be exiting the train at Karasuma Station just a stop before the last. Japanese people commonly play games on their phones and scroll through LINE, Instagram and Twitter or play games to avoid making eye contact with you if they don't have a book or newspaper to read. My solution to avoid scrolling through my newsfeed or trying to finish Sonic There Hedgehog 2 for the one-millionth time is to simply look out the window.

Soon after I was seated 2 Japanese girls whom were friends and around my age presumably sat across from (in front of) me. I began listening to music and looking out the window before the train had even then off.  A few moments before the train left off another Japanese women rushed on board and sat beside me in an aisle seat. She was a bit rude and clumsy as she had several shopping bags, was watching videos on her phone without earbuds and was leaning over4 into my personal space. After about 2 minutes of traveling she asked the girls across from me if they could pull down their shade to which they agreed  an quickly did so even although they too had their window open (the shade was only half way down at first). Instead of even asking me "princess" reached over me and pulled down my shade EVEN ALTHOUGH she could CLEARLY see that I was looking out the window and imaging myself in a "Panic! At The Disco" music video!

I was stunned! I slowly turned and looked at her as she apologized before I began pulling my shade back up so that I could at least see. The two girls across for us eyes grew big. They gave each other a look and were probably expecting me to knock her out or curse her out you know all of the stereotypical stuff you'd expect a black girl to do. I began angrily texting my friend about the situation to calm my nerves. I would have hesitated but I would have still probably pulled down my shade if she actually asked me to instead of doing it herself since she assume that I was too dumb of a foreign to understand her question in Japanese (she could have even pointed to the window and gestured what she wanted me to do for her).

In retaliation she raised the volume on her phone and appeared to have also been texting whomever about what I did as I could see that she too was angrily typing away at her keyboard.

Just my luck she remained next to me on board until the stop before mines. It was a very awkward ride.

Looking back on this I really do wish I had been the bigger person and simply ignored her behavior but to me I find it unreasonable. I have the window seat so it's my call! I decide whether I want the shade up or down and if I want to be nice I can ask you if it's okay with you.  The shade was pulled up BEFORE she sat besides me. She should have been grateful that she even had a seat especially since she was wearing a skimpy outfit and had at least about 5-6 big shopping bags with her. She refused to wear earbuds or to mute her phone yet she had the nerve to act entitled and then offended when I chose to ignore her demands.

The double standard here was killing me. If I were to have been texting my friends and watching Instagram videos and playing music aloud without using earbuds the whole train would have given me dirty looks and insulted me for being an annoying rude foreigner not to mention they would have called me a tramp for dressing slutty, but this Japanese woman whom was probably older than I was had broken just about every rule that she could have and no one really looked and not a word was said.

All 3 of the girls besides me probably didn't even see things from my perspective. I probably just seemed like a bitch to those girls. I'm not Japanese and while I do live in Japan I see and notice new and interesting things everyday especially when traveling for 1 hour and 35 by train. I want to get my money's worth! If you want to be a vampire then bleach your skin or get a car and drive yourself.

Those girls didn't know me! What if I was a tourist? Maybe this was going to be my only chance to take this train and get a good view of Osaka and Kyoto.

  People of Color Don't Like Their Color 

Now I understand not wanting to get a tan. I’m a black girl and it’s a controversial topic within “the black community” but having a light complexion is generally desired amongst both men and women. Whenever possible, black people tend to avoid being in the sun for too long or at the very least they tend to complain about tans or as we call it "getting darker".  Unlike Asians (particularly Japanese people) skin whitening and bleaching isn't acceptable to us. People still do it but it's done quietly. You'd never brag about it or compliment someone for looking paler or more white. 

Reasons for avoiding tans vary from wanting to look white to not wanting to change foundations or have weird tan lines.

I am not here to shame anyone but I can understand why people want to avoid the sun. Dark skin and tans are seen as a negative thing when talking about people of color. White and light complexions are perceived as beautiful so naturally and understandably people would like to avoid things that can contribute to making them darker. 

While I personally don't mind people making their own skin regimens and wearing protective clothing and products but we have to draw the line somewhere. You can't stop other people from enjoying nature or seeing outside because you're afraid of a little NATURAL sunlight. It's an unfair and unreasonable request to ask someone to give up their view to keep you from getting a tan.
Maybe you shouldn't use public transportation then. You can't always get what you want. If you want to pull the shades then you have 2 options. You can either ask the person with the window seat to politely pull down the shades or find an open window seat so that the power is in your hands.

Thank you so much for reading! Have you ever had a similar situation onboard? Share your story in the comments below.

Stay Tuned!

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