Assedio e independencia feminina

Voltei a escrever em portugues, sem acentos pq na real eles sao super desnecessarios... e eu tb tenho preguica. Entao... voltei a escrever em portugues. Dizem que eh mais facil de ler. O problema eh que jah estou esquecendo a lingua, entao eh bem possivel que apareca alguma coisa estranha no decorrer do post. Gomen ne.

Bom, todo mundo sabe da fama que o Japao tem em relacao a assedio sexual. Aqui sekuhara (sexual harassment) nao acontece muito em empresas, mas nos lugares cotidianos. Os pervertidos sao chamados de "chikan", e geralmente passam a mao em lugares indevidos. Eles sempre rondam trens lotados, mas o que muitos nao sabem eh que eles tambem cacam vitimas em lugares afastados, espreitando as colegiais em busca de sabe-se lah o que. Esses sao chamados "suto-ka-" (stalker).

Eu sempre fiquei meio triste com essa situacao. O japao eh um pais seguro, mas a quantidade de crimes sexuais eh tao berrante que chega a ser normal. Eu pergunto para todas as minhas amigas japonesas, e 100% delas jah foi vitima de algum tipo de assedio sexual. O problema eh que elas geralmente nao reagem, por vergonha ou falta de coragem. Assim os chikans podem exercitar seus tatos sem muito risco de serem surpreendidos.

Bom, hoje ao falar com uma amiga sobre isso, descobri coisas interessantes. A primeira eh que ela teve cojones para encarar os chikans, dar porrada e sair gritando, o que seria uma reacao tipicamente brasileira. Ela contou que quando voltava para casa, usando seu uniforme de colegial, chegou um cara por tras, lascou a mao na bunda dela e depois saiu correndo. Ela, ao chegar em casa, espreitou pela janela um pouco, e de repente o sujeito saiu do esconderijo e comecou a passear de novo. Corajosa, ela vestiu um uniforme um pouco diferente, e foi ver se o cara fazia de novo. Quando o crapula se aproximou, ela virou de repente e disse algo como "aha, foi vc antes tb, ne seu tarado!" e o cara disse "ah, entao era vc..." e saiu correndo de novo. No fim ele nao foi preso nem nada, e provavelmente suas maos jah tocaram mais bundas do que uma privada de banheiro publico. Eh a vida.

Foi quando essa minha amiga me falou que existem revistas com dicas para se tornar uma garota de entretenimento. Vou explicar: aqui no japao, alem da putaria em dvds, animes e jogos, alem dos prostibulos e casas de massagem, existe um tipo de entretenimento chamado Kabakura. Eh como uma versao feminina de "host clubs". Basicamente voce entra no bar que parece um cabare, escolhe uma mulher, e essa mulher te "diverte". Dizem as mas linguas que nao eh nada sexual - apenas conversando, rindo de piadas tolas, pedindo bebidas e elogiando o cliente, as garotas dos kabakuras ganham seu pao de cada dia. E nao apenas pao - muitas sao inundadas de presentes, vestidos caros e joias. Acho que deve haver um elemento de sacanagem na relacao garota-cliente, mas como nunca fui num lugar desses nao tenho certeza.

Bom, antigamente as japonesas ficavam felizes com a vida de casada. O sonho de muitas era trabalhar num servico de meio periodo por um tempo, depois casar e virar dona de casa. A seguranca e estabilidade eram o suficiente para garantir uma vida "feliz". Os tempos mudam, o feminismo atinge o japao e as mulheres querem ser independentes. Muitas batalham pesado contra o preconceito e baixos salarios femininos, mas ainda assim "ganbareiam" bastante. Algumas, no entanto, sonham em trabalhar em kabakuras. Existem ateh revistas especializadas nisso, com dicas de moda e como proceder para virar uma garota de entretenimento. Recentemente uma pesquisa apontou que kabakura girl eh o 9o trabalho mais desejado por estudantes. Muitas "querem virar mulher" num lugar desses, o que reforca a teoria que, por detras dos panos (ou por baixo deles), existe mais putaria do que se parece.

E eu que pensava "oh, coitadinhas das japinhas indefesas". Oh well, vivendo e aprendendo.

Business Matchmaking!

Not going to say sorry today - you know, no time to write and stuff. But something worth talking happened! But first, some words about my situation so you won't get lost in the text.

I'm in the shuukatsu (Job Hunting) now. This is the time where university students are preparing themselves to be freshmen when they graduate. The companies are seeking fresh meat, students are searching for stable and easy fonts of money for the rest of their lives. The competition is strong, the tests and interviews are tricky, and the overall process is very stressing.

To help in this problem, my university decided to make a social gathering between students and company representatives to provide advice and help to us. Great! First, I had to make my business card, which uses the same design as my homepage. With the card hanging in my neck, I entered in the place.

Lots of salarymen wearing suits, and lots of students. Because I study in a technology university, I didn't see more than 1 girl among everybody. Many tables with beer, champagne, sushi and more japanese cuisine.

After the speech, our jobs was, like a normal matchmaking, to find our partners. Instead of girls, however, the targets were the salarymen. They belong to famous companies: energy, telecommunication, software. Interested students just flock from rep to rep, trying to learn more about their companies and maybe trading business cards.

I knew that there were no game companies there, so I just ate something and talked to 3 executives. We talked about the Wii and future of gaming, about my Brazilian lineage, and about travel. The usual stuff.

It was nice, though. Free food is always welcome.

Traffic and Police

Recently a chinese student from my university died in a traffic accident while riding his scooter. In Brazil, where traffic accidents are among the main causes of death, this wouldn't be a surprise. However, we're in Japan, the country of cars and traffic organization. Something had to be done. So, the international student's office decided to make a lecture about safety in traffic for foreigners.

At first I laughted at this: while the Brazilian traffic is not so extreme as the Indian one, you have to be careful at all times. Hence, a seminar talking about traffic safety to me is kinda strange. I went there, anyway - who knows what you can learn from these events.

I was the first student to arrive, and honestly I thought that I would be the only one. Later some other international students (mainly chinese and indian) came to join the show. The staff made us see an educational video in english, teaching to look to both sides of the street, use reflective materials, etc etc. An interesting thing about japanese traffic is that, although it's very well organized, the bicycle department suffers a lot:

• There are too many bicycles. When your bike gets old and you want to throw it away, you have to pay a "big garbage" fee. As a result, MANY people just abandon the poor vehicle in parks and other places.
• There are few bike parking places. So, just park anywhere hoping that you'll face no traffic officer.
• When you are going straight and another bike comes from the opposite direction, neither of you knows which direction to turn. Left? Light? Its funny and dangerous at the same time.

In fact there are some "rules" in bike traffic, but nobody obeys them. For example, theoretically you can't ride holding a mobile phone or umbrella, neither ride with another person in the same bike. "No parking" signs are normally ignored, also. At least these "crimes" are not so bad: its nothing compared to drunk-driving, for example. Japan is still the safest place :)

The funny thing was when a traffic officer started to talk about, guess what, traffic. But he was not only a traffic officer: he was a magician. And by that I mean the guy who makes "magic" tricks with cards, balls and stuff like that. There I was, in a seminar about traffic safety, watching some policeman doing simple tricks.

You can only find these kind of law officer in a country like Japan.

Needless to say that I was surprised... strange how, in my place, "authority and respect" (almost fear?) are important characteristics in the police, but here in Japan the "scary" image is replaced by a complacent, friendly smile.

That's the mascot for the Aichi Prefecture Police

I particularly like this politeness. I wonder, though, how effective is our little owl in the combat against crime...