The Medusa Stare

Oh boy.  I'll need to tread carefully on this one, as it's a subject that people can get, perhaps understandably, irate about, because it's quite contentious and not even I know what my own feelings are on this.  It's about staring.  But wait!  I'm not talking about the rampant stares you receive from the natives, but the stares from one's fellows minorities as a 'foreigner' in Japan.  In fact I don't even mean staring, but the polar-opposite: the anti-stare, something that I dub the Medusa Stare.

Let me explain what I mean.  Japan is a very homogenous country, with 98.5% of the population being native Japanese.  Even from that remaining 1.5% we still have some 2 million foreign nationals.  However, nearly two-thirds of these are of Asian appearance (ie. Chinese and Korean), and don't physically stand out.  Which is not to say they get an easier time of things - anything but - but that's a whole other blog post.

Those of a non-Asian appearance, however, do physically stick out, and the presence of a foreigner in even the most cosmopolitan areas is still unusual.  What's rarely appreciated, however, is that from our point of view it is also an unusual sight.  I'm not saying it's right, but I cannot help it if my eyes fall on the only other westerner on the train.  Likewise, it's perfectly fair if his or her eyes land on me.

Of course, it's natural to feel awkward if you accidentally make eye-contact.  Most people look shyly away at that point, and again that's a normal reaction - two strangers lock eyes and they quickly break the stare - it's not an ethnicity thing.  You just increase the chances of it by your comparatively unusual appearance.

That's fair enough.  What winds me up is the 'Medusa Stare': when someone forcefully keeps eye contact away from someone, even though it's obviously the only thing you're paying attention to.

Anyone else who has lived in Japan or even stayed on a long-ish holiday has surely experienced this.  Another foreigner passes you by, their gaze fixed pointedly in the middle distance as they march stiffly past you.  You can palpably feel the tension on them.  I'm no expert in body language but I know when someone isn't looking at you and when they're not looking at YOU.

 It shouldn't be a big deal, and in the grand scheme of things it isn't.  But it still winds me up the wrong way.  As I said, in Japan, you will be unusual to behold.  For some people, this is a real kick (even I have to admit getting a guilty buzz from it from time to time), but for a small handful of people, this superficial recognition is like some quick n' easy celebrity status, instead of real, earned popularity.  They relish the idea that they're special, of being The One that stands out from the crowd so effortlessly.  And, as another foreigner crossing their path, you ruin their fantasy.  You serve them a living, breathing reminder that their illusion of being so special is just that: an illusion.  So what do they do?  They blank you out completely, as if to say "Get out of my Japan, this is my special place, not yours."

I'm not saying all people who look determinedly away are like this.  Some people are just trying to be achingly polite, as if to say "Look, I'm not staring at you!  Your unusual appearance hasn't grabbed my attention at all!".  But some definitely are.

It's for this reason that I hate the Medusa Stare more than the actual stares from the Japanese.  The latter is just amazed at your existence, and the former wishes you didn't exist at all.