Japan: Some like it raw

Japan is about a whole lot more than snazzy electronics.

Before I went to Japan, I never imagined myself eating live shell fish, raw oysters and octopus.

I have visited so many Asian countries, but somehow never worked Japan into my travel plans. I suppose it is a country that Pakistanis associate with durable cars, electronic wonders, and little else. If we stretch our minds a bit, stereotypical Japanese kimonos or fans might be added to the list.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to visit Japan and live for several weeks in the midst of its unique mix of ultramodernity and ancient ways, including the most complicated hi tech toilets I’ve ever encountered. I was invited to take part in the Japan Asia Leadership Fellow Programme, which is organised by the Japanese Government, the Japan Foundation, and the International House of Japan. Each year the programme invites a few leaders from Asian countries to visit Japan in an effort to build better understanding between continental neighbors.

When I first arrived in Tokyo, I was struck by how developed and beautiful the city is. One thing I can say with absolute confidence is that everything works with precision. The trains are never late, even by a minute, so people can make extremely detailed plans — involving getting guests to and from many places without fear that the system would let them down. I also never saw a scrap of paper lying on the ground in any of the cities I visited in the country. Like Pakistan, democracy is something the Japanese are still grappling with; on the other hand, community responsibility is deeply embedded in their culture.

Since I had been selected for the programme because of my work on gender issues, particularly violence against women and sexual harassment, I found the lectures organised by the programme management engaging and eye-opening. At one of these seminars, I met a woman who was a brilliant young scholar of cultural studies. Of course, I immediately started inquiring about the changing role of Japanese women.  She told me plainly that Japanese women are in a serious dilemma. Faced with more options, Japanese women now increasingly run into compatibility problems with Japanese men. She went on to say that many women chose not to marry because they prefer their independence and want to continue their careers — in Japan, wives are often pressured into leaving their jobs soon after marriage.  Due to economic pressures and long hours at work, men are also increasingly opting out of marriage. This trend, which gives more freedom to younger men and women to expand their personal choices, has also resulted in a rapid halt in Japan’s population growth to the extent that growth has fallen below zero (-0.22%) over the past two years.  Despite this rather striking phenomenon, I found that few people were actively engaged in understanding the root causes of the issue from a gender perspective.

Coincidentally, my book, TABOO!: The Hidden Culture of a Redlight Area, had recently been translated into Japanese. When I met Dr Masako, the book’s translator, in Tokyo for the first time she acted as if she had known me forever, and asked me all kinds of questions about each of the characters in Taboo! With so much affection that she may as well have been asking for an update on her relatives or close friends in Pakistan. She was so sad to learn that Ustad Sadiq had died and sat quietly for a while, in respectful contemplation.

Since writing my book I have adopted pursuits like advocating for legislation against sexual harassment, but still, every group of people I met in Japan felt it was their responsibility to take me to the red light area in their city and explain the social, cultural and economic dynamics of the local sex industry to me. As a result, I have become somewhat knowledgeable about the sex industry in Japan, from the Quarters of Geishas in Kyoto’s Gion district, to the host bars and gay hangouts in Shinjuku district in Tokyo!

One evening, while wandering about with my new friends in Kyoto, I was approached by two young Japanese men with long dyed blond hair, dressed in snazzy suits. With a slight twinkle in their eyes, they handed me a flyer that listed their rates under their photos. These young men were ‘companions’ that worked in the sort of bars that have popped up catering exclusively to women. These hosts accompany you for the evening, pour your drinks and, I suppose, flirt with you. That is all.  Anything beyond that is illegal, and the bars claim that they don’t do any illegal business. These young guys were curious about where I was from and wanted to know what I was doing in their area with a bunch of Japanese people.  As for me, I was just pleased that, at my age, they could think that I might still be interested in the company of a 20-year-old guy.

Despite my visits to these red light areas, for me, the most adventurous parts of my trip came when I was asked to eat all kinds of strange food. Japanese food is more like artwork; you are presented with course after course, each a different array of beautiful colours and patterns. As pretty as it all was, I rarely knew what was on my plate at any given time, or which part of my meal cooked or which was raw. I became quite fond of eating raw fish, especially tuna, but God knows what the other things I ate were. Raw octopus was the height of my experimentation. My only limit was not eating something that had whiskers and eyes staring up at me from the plate. And I always made sure to check if anything on my plate was moving.

My colleagues from China, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Korea, and Japan also travelled around to see Japan outside Tokyo. It was fun to learn about serious issues with a group of bubbly friends — the combination of insight, excitement and fun I experienced reminded me of my college days.

During my trip to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which is the epicentre of the peace movement against nuclear weapons, we met the ex mayor of Nagasaki,Motoshima Hitoshi, who in his emotional plea said that citizens of the world need to act together to end the madness of nuclear destruction. The mayors of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki have a strong tradition of supporting this movement. Both cities can boast of amazing peace museums that depict the chilling destruction caused by the atomic bombs used by America at the end of World War II. Seeing hundreds of school children making notes and writing essays in these museums and surrounding peace parks uplifted my spirits,  and made me hopeful — although those who pursue weapons and destruction are strong, those who are trying to stop them and lobby for peace are also not far behind in this race.

A visit to another town close to Hiroshima was also an eye opener. Miajima, well known as one of Japan’s three most beautiful sights, was a high point for me. A shrine in the water is a sacred magnet for those still following the traditions of Shinto, the ancestral religion of Japan. Our visit coincided with an annual festival during which sacred dances were performed as they had been for hundreds of years.

I came away from my programme thinking that Asians need to create greater connections at a regional level. The more we know about other cultures and political systems, the more we learn about ourselves- our strengths that we usually ignore and our weaknesses that we emphasize. I also feel that we Pakistanis, along with our government, need to rebuild Pakistan’s image and establish a true niche in this region in relation to the other countries of Asia.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, January 16^th,  2011.