raymookie banzo

“Are you Chinese?” I was asked this question by a preschooler last month. She then began reciting her mother’s license plate number as another kid played in my hair. Later that day, I went for a run, and as I passed by the park I noticed a baseball team having practice. Everyone started screaming, “Raymon-sensei! Hellooo!”. Celeb status or nahh?? This has been my life so far in a nutshell.

Recently, it dawned on me that this is the first time I am living alone. It is also my first full time job and it’s incredible. Granted it’s only been a few months, I don’t mind it at all. The adults in my life never highlighted the joys of growing old. Independence, freedom, a salary… So now that I’m rich, I go shopping every weekend at chic boutiques in Tokyo. The more expensive things are, the more I desire them actually. Here is a list of things I’ve bought so far with my rich ass:

Richie Rich’s shopping list

New drawers, laundry detergent, rubber gloves, various cleaning products, dishware, bed + sheets and blanket, orthopedic pillow, towels, thermals, broom, heater, student loan payments, credit card payments...

Not what you expected is it. Granted you have to handle business as an adult, the joys of being free far exceed the tediousness of dealing with responsibilities. Earning a decent living wage has also been nice.  

at the wine festival a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t understand what was going on but it looked cool.

shake shake potato killing the game. He had been talking about the school festival all year because he was so excited to perform.

My first month of school

I don’t even know where to begin, honestly. The kids here have made this experience what it is. They’re the reason for all of this after all. They call me Raymon-sensei, a title I don’t feel like I deserve but I’ve accepted it. Teachers used to be like gods in Japan but there has been a decline in the level of respect given to them (likewise in the U.S. in my opinion). However, they are still highly respected here compared to the U.S. We could learn a thing or two from Japan in this regard.

They begin class with a greeting. One kid gets up and walks to the front of class then says:

1. Tachimashou - Stand up

2. Kiwotsuke - Fix your posture

3. Korekara eigo no jugyou wo hijimemasu - Let’s start English class

4. Onegaishimasu - Please do me this favor

The first time it happened I was like “What the the hell...?” because the kid shouted it, haha. And the rest of the class stood at full attention. Imagine a 7 year old yelling “Stand!...Fix your posture!...” and the rest of the class actually snapping at attention, taking him seriously and following directions.  It was so militaristic I thought they all might drop down and do 20 push-ups. It was very impressive to see a group of first graders doing this and with such confidence and authority. Yes, the kids are adorable...all of them. Even the bad ones. Because compared to some of the kids I’ve worked with in the U.S., they’d still be considered good.

A lot of people in Japan know some English but they are so afraid of making mistakes they refuse to speak. This a big problem at the Jr. High I’m working at. I’ve been brainstorming solutions to how to fix this. The more I learn Japanese, they more open up to me and get more comfortable speaking English with me. That has worked the best so far but I can’t imagine they’d maintain that confidence level with strangers. There are several kids who love speaking to me who are probably ENFPs just like me. I am thankful to them because sometimes it can be frustrating trying to teach English to kids who don’t see the use in it and who are too shy to speak. The days I work at the elementary schools school (Tuesdays and Thursdays) are actually enjoyable though. The elementary school kids are very responsive and try to communicate with me in and outside of the classroom. They teach me words in Japanese and I teach them words in English. Also, I just began bringing my ukulele to class too and we’ve been jammin and learning English at the same time. It’s hella kawaii (cute).

School festival shenanigans. Can you tell what’s going on?

Recently I started cleaning the school with the students and I’ve grown a lot closer with them since. It’s not required that I clean with them but the other teachers do and every student has to. I read on someone’s blog that once they began cleaning with the students their relationship with them instantly improved. It’s actually worked! Along with learning Japanese, this has helped me tremendously. They’re on very strict schedules so this (and lunch time) is the only time I really get to interact with them outside of class. I find that I actually clean my apartment more now which is cool.

Every Monday I play ukulele and sing with a student named Karen. She has down-syndrome but she is still very functional and participates in most activities at the Jr. High. We are practicing the ABCs right now! A couple of weeks ago we quizzed her on the alphabet. I would sing out different letters and she had to point to which one I was saying. It was too much for my soul yall… Keep at it Karen!

the women of Kawakami Jr. High. 

class jump rope contest at the school festival.

student presentations at the school festival.

My ride or die, Shiho-sensei

I have a mom in every country I’ve lived in and Japan is no exception. I promise you I don’t plan it, it just happens. There is my actual mom, Sabrina, my best friend’s mom, Michelle, Alejandra in Argentina, Martinha in Brazil, and now Shiho in Japan. I just vibe with moms, I don’t know why. Maybe it’s my cheeks. And then once they find out I like to eat they can’t resist their motherly urges to care for me. None of them can replace my mom though obviously but I love them love them yes I do! Shiho is my mom in Japan. She is a badass and we both like to break the rules a little so we have that in common :P I say this because she broke Japanese tradition and married a foreigner, haha. She was twenty-one and studying abroad in Australia when she met her husband to be. He is a finance professor at a university and for more than twenty years she was working at the Japanese consulate in Australia. She’s lived in Brisbane, Australia for 30 years so she has a slight Australian accent. It’s also kind of Japanese. Either way, it’s very cute. She’s also a little fashionista like my actual mom. Yesterday she basically told me how she would always swag out in Australia but she can’t stunt on these hoes in our town because everyone dresses so casually here. I mean...that’s what she wanted to say but she’s so polite, lol. She’s been in Kawakami for the past seven years taking care of her mom and she misses her family. Her husband is visiting right now so it’s nice to see her happy. He’s leaving tomorrow and I just convinced our boss to let her leave early. She was going to stay after work to help some students with their speeches! I was like noooo Shiho-sensei, not today. Go home to yo man. This was very small in comparison to all the things she does for me - takes me shopping, lots of translation, gives me a ride to work, etc. but I’m finding more and more ways I’m able to help out. We got each others backs. Love you Shiho-sensei!

Black in Japan

I want to make it clear that I am living in a village of about 3900 people, it is one of the richest villages in Japan, and I am as happy go lucky as they come. Take into consideration the different factors that may be at play i.e. gender, location; and don’t make generalizations about every black person’s experience in Japan. There is an opinion section in the Japan Times titled Black Eye which I have found very helpful in understanding my experience as an African-American in Japan.

I absolutely love it here. Japanese people are so respectable & kind. There are many critiques to be made about Japanese culture but I don’t wish to highlight them right now. The good certainly outweighs the bad though. My only wish is that I had spoke Japanese before coming to Japan. I think it would be impossible to live here without speaking the language unless you have a translator. There aren’t many fluent English speakers in Japan, let alone in the countryside, so it can be quite difficult to make friends. But from my experience, if they see that you are trying they will meet you halfway! There have been so many people I’ve met who I thought were indifferent or simply uninterested in me until I said something to them in Japanese. Their faces lit up when they realized I was trying. Our conversations are like a potluck - they bring their bit of English and I bring my bit of Japanese and WHAM. Friendship. I’m cheesy, I know, but that’s really how it’s been.

Most people here are absolutely fascinated by black people. I don’t usually mind the attention but sometimes I just want to blend in. Most all of my interactions with Japanese people are positive but there have been a couple of times where I felt uncomfortable. Once was with a group of high school girls who pretended to get scared when they saw me, but their was a ringleader and I could tell the other girls were just following her. She was rotten though. But there have been a few times when I turned a corner and actually scared people though so maybe her shock was legit. The second time was with a student's mom at the grocery store who kept saying “interesting” and “funny” in Japanese. Usually those comments wouldn’t bother me but the way she said it and how she was staring at me, like I was some rare pokemon. But thinking back on the few times I’ve seen them at the grocery store, she might have been flirting. Her daugher also gives me the eyes all the time! Have you ever had to avoid a Jr. High school girl? Talk about awkward...No, no, no cougar and cub. Not today or ever…

“Are you Chinese?” “Do you have a perm?” “Do you have any treasure?” “Why do you want to be a teacher?” “Raymon-sensei you are handsome like me”

These are some questions and comments I’ve received from the kids here, lol. Many laughs to be had every day.  

My interactions with the elementary kids are by far the best. The most notable experience was when I visited the preschool & kindergarten with Shiho-sensei. In each class we visited, the kids froze. They had no idea who or what I was, what I was doing there, or what they should do. We walked past a preschool class that had just begun eating lunch. I said, “Helloooo” in a big voice like I do at every school I visit. “Haroo...”, they began in unison, their heads turning slowly until they froze in shock. Their spoons hung mid air and their eyes widened. It was like a scene from a movie, I swear! I laughed so hard. One girl got up and ran to her teacher in the back of the class. Moments like these I have to fight the urge to start screaming and acting like a monster like I’d do with my nephews but I don’t want to traumatize these kids.

I am the first American many of them have ever met, and certainly the first black person. It only takes one brave kid to give me a high five to put the rest of them at ease, or If they see me interacting with their teacher they realize I’m OK. After that, they want to hold my hand, touch my hair, ask a million questions, gesture for me to pick them up, haha. Just fascinated kids! The best part about Japan is that most people have this childlike curiosity about foreigners. Well, some foreigners. I can only speak on behalf of black people. I know some Asians from different countries have very different experiences.. I think Japanese people may have some expectations of me because of my nationality but not because of myrace. They ask me about cheeseburgers & baseball. “American” stuff. I know in bigger cities like Tokyo and Yokohama it is different because there are more black people there from around the world. Because of their various interactions with black people living there, they may have developed certain stereotypes. Last weekend I was in Tokyo this group of Japanese guys came up to me asking if I had any weed. They didn’t go up to the group of Japanese people who were close by which makes me wonder what stereotypes exist in metropolitan areas. Something like this would never happen in a small town in Japan, I am certain. My first reaction was obviously, “What the hell? Because I’m black?” I had to check myself though because I was sitting on a curb outside of a club in a section of Tokyo known for it’s nightlife. I don’t know what goes on there. Maybe the Jamaicans are giving us a bad rep :P haha, jk. RASTA MAAAAHHNN.

Shibuya, Tokyo.

Once while in the gym I noticed a group of guys enter. There are only a handful of us in my village who workout regularly so any newcomers stick out. I’m a local, ayyyyeeeee. At this point, I just expect everyone to gawk at me. The only people who pay me no mind are older Japanese people oddly enough. They mind their own business, clearly, haha. The newcomers stared as I expected. They were not dressed to work out so I assumed that one of them maybe saw me and told his friends to come along and take a look at the gaijin (foreigner). They watched me warm down and stretch for 15 minutes. I finished my workout and I left. One of them left right after me so I slowed down giving him the chance to address me if he had the courage. It took him until we reached the bottom of the stairs to finally try and flag me down. He said something in Japanese I didn’t understand. He tried using gestures to ask me for a photo. I already knew what he wanted before he asked, haha. His friends soon came downstairs. Apparently they were trailing close behind.

I have decided that I don’t mind if people want to take a photo as long as they want to be in the photo with me. If they just want a photo of me I’m not having it...I’m not a monkey in a zoo. This has only happened a couple of times, like below in the next picture. People usually want to take a photo with me and they always tell me how cool I am, haha. I am not bragging or making this up, just trying to describe my experience as accurately as possible. “You are very cool!” “You are nice guy!” I’ve heard these two phrases so many times. I take meeting new people very seriously because I am often the first African-American they are meeting. I mean I’m still myself - a clown - but I’m always conscious that I am probably the first black person they’re meeting ever. I don’t want to damage what could be a newfound interest in another culture. After we took the picture, they were grinning like kids in a candy shop. They were pointing at my muscles and wanting to shake my hand. “Dekaaaaa!” (big, or big as hell depending on how they say it) haha. I hear this and “Ooookii” (also meaning big) very often. They were so happy I couldn’t help but smile.

this woman thought she was slick. I caught her recording us so I started taking pictures of her. She got all awkward afterwards, haha. 

In Japan, people acknowledge my humanity before considering the color of my skin. This is most apparent at the grocery store in my town (our social hub). There are a lot of migrant workers here from all over Asia working on the farms. They stare in awe every time they see me and I’ve been here for a few months now. The Japanese people here hardly pay me any mind unless we are interacting with each other. (Reminder, take into consideration the different factors that might be in play. This is specifically in regards to my village and the people here). It is so refreshing and it absolutely astounds me that most people have lived their entire lives being acknowledged this way: as a human first; as an equal. I am constantly reminded of the “uniqueness” of the African-American experience. I feel like I’m being restored which seems strange to say, but I would have to devote an entire different blog post to elaborate on this.

I would venture to say that Japanese people are not racist towards African-Americans, they are simply unaware of who we are. I have been reading a lot of articles from other African-Americans in Japan to better understand my experience. Most of us are saying the same thing more or less from what I’ve read. We don’t feel discriminated against by Japanese people & almost any interaction which could be perceived as hostile or negative could be explained by their ignorance of who we are. I’ve noticed that it is only in the bigger cities where they have had more interaction with foreigners that people may be stereotyped. Japan is no exception when it comes to American media consumption but it consumes far less than the rest of the world. Japan is it’s own country. However, the aspects of American culture that Japan consumes is shaped by black culture in the United States which is why I think it is important that Japanese people learn a thing or two about black culture. Music, dance, and fashion predominately are all areas heavily influenced by black culture. We just had our first school festival at Kawakami Jr. High and the kids were dressed in hoodies, baggie pants, nikes, and doing the nae-nae. A lot of Japanese people don’t see the need in learning about different cultures since they have everything they need in Japan and often don’t plan to leave, but Japanese culture is still influenced by outside entities and knowing more about the world around them can only help.

This is only my opinion based on the few months that I have been in Japan. My favorite part about being here oddly enough is that most people don’t know anything about black Americans. It is a lot better than being stereotyped, believe me. This statement is based off of the questions they ask and don’t ask & the comments they make and don’t make. Very few people have asked me if I play basketball. Instead, I’ve been asked what sports I like. No one has asked me if I like rap or hip-hop. Instead, I’ve been asked what music I like. No one has ever followed me in a store, questioned me when I lost a train ticket or receipt, or talked down to me (from my knowledge). They actually have really high expectations for me. I have grown so much in the few months I’ve been here and I am extremely appreciative of the people in my town who have supported me during this time. They’ve went above and beyond to make sure I’m comfortable here. I lowkey feel like the stars have aligned for me on this leg of my journey. I have never felt this comfortable, creative, and inspired by the world around me. With that being said, this has also been the most difficult cultural transition I have ever experienced. So many miscommunications, bouts of loneliness, and difficulties with language acquisition. These last few months have had many extremes but because of my past experiences I am confident that it will only get better. Patience is a virtue.

Over and out,

Raymookie Banzo

Helen is a real one. She took me to get pancakes, to a wine festival, and then to Tokyo. Byyyyeeeeeeee

The vice-principal at my Jr. High. He is my dad in Kawakami. No but forreal he’s the realest. He helps me with so much stuff although he’s the busiest person at our school. I really look up to this guy. Thank you for everything Kitazawa-sensei! And the two awkard munchkins on the side. The awkward Jr. High phase is x2 in Japan, lol. 

Yamanashi Prefecture. 

Go karts in Tokyo! Next time it’s going down.

BLACK PEOPLE MAKING RIBS IN JAPAN! Yall...I was so happy.