Yeah, that sounds about right. I sometimes think Americans cheapen hugs and kisses by doling them out to (a demanding them from) everyone and anyone. It's gotten to the point where you have parents writing essays in which they implore people to not demand kisses from small children (particularly girls). But it's…

Yesterday, Hiromi (my wife) and I had this little exchange (but in Japanese):

Are you second or third (or fourth) generation Japanese? If so, it's important to remember that your parents' idea of what Japanese culture is may be a snapshot from the past. Japanese young parents these days are much more affectionate with their children than they were when I first came to Japan 29 years ago. Women…

Or the Scottish equivalent of Reader's Digest.

I am embarrassed to admit that it is completely news to me that so few trans men pass and that so few undergo hormone treatment or SRS. I had always assumed that it is easier for trans men to pass than it is for trans women to pass, on average. Then again, the only trans man I know personally, or rather that I am…

Congratulations on now having several brain cells dedicated to knowing who Charo is. And here I've been trying to recover those brain cells to put to better use for thirty years! ¿Qué significa "cuchi cuchi" significa?

Wait... Actual consequences? For a frat? How can this be? Where were the rich Old Boys threatening to never donate to the school again if the administration didn't sweep the whole thing under the rug? I would very much like to believe that this is a sign of system-wide change, but I worry that it is just a fluke.

Haha! Not sure if 38 and 48 counts as "multi-generational," and neither of us are exactly trivia experts, but now that you mention it, yeah. I didn't know who Mr. Big was, and she didn't know who R.E.M. was. LOL

I don't feel picked on. And on another Gawker site, I would have just shrugged. But it does hurt a bit to get that kind of hate here on Jezebel. It's okay to judge a case based on its specifics. It's not okay to judge based on stereotypes.

Oops. I noticed too late that I did something funky with cut-and-paste there. I meant to say, "will feel free to stereotype you and your partner and say outrageously hateful stuff to or about you."

I once made the mistake of posting a photo of my wife and I on Jez. (Stupid of me, perhaps, but it seemed relevant to the article.) She's 38 and and I'm 48, but she looks younger, and whereas I'm white, she's Japanese. (I've lived in Japan most of my adult life; I don't get to meet too many non-Japanese women!) I was…

Welcome to the club. Complete strangers will feel free to stereotype you and your partner. I don't even bother to react anymore and say outrageously hateful stuff to or about you. If your relationship is good, you know that better than anyone else, and that's all that matters. Take comfort in the knowledge that it is…

Moth-eaten. But don't read too much into that, metaphor-wise.

Most conventionally pretty youngish white women look like Taylor Swift. And that's why I couldn't pick her out of a lineup if you held a gun to my head.

Zing! So much for stereotypes.

I'm just imagining what a huge burden has been lifted from that poor birth mother's shoulders. That alone is enough to bring me to tears. Raped in a strange country at the age of sixteen...terrified and alone...and then 27 years of guilt. I can only imagine. I would never judge her.

I've never been to Taiwan, but I've had many Taiwanese students over the years, and my impression of how Japan and Taiwan compares syncs pretty well with your description. And, yes, I've been following the Sunflower Movement and lamenting that the Japanese weren't that forceful when Abe rammed the State Secrets Law…

"Common" is indeed relative. And I do sometimes find myself thinking when I occasionally visit home (the States), "Sheesh, get a room already." My partner and I hold hands pretty much constantly when we're out, and I get stared at for being a 185-centimeter white person with perhaps a somewhat distinctive sense of…

As I mentioned in another comment, hand-holding is common in cosmopolitan Japan. Kay concurs that her impressions may be based in living in rural areas and provincial cities. I live in Kyoto (17 years and counting) and have lived in Kobe, commuted to Osaka, and spent some time in Tokyo.

Don't worry! There's sure to be one sassy black girlfriend, unless there's a sassy gay boyfriend, in which case there's sure to be a black school principal. But maybe there will be a nerdy Asian friend!