A call from my parents

I just got a call from my parents few hours ago. We were talking for only 20 minutes, just catching up what is happening around ourselves recently. I just mentioned that 2 girls, who I studied in Sciences-Po together, came to my flat few weeks ago to meet me.

It was nothing about romance, two friends of mine, coming over to my place, visiting the most visited city in Germany (Cologne), and talking about general stuff. But my mother started to have this weired face on her face; it seemed like she got really offended by this. And then I realized, perhaps it's not Japan, but my family environment which made me feel so conservative about sexual issues.

So, I checked out the statistics around the world, and here it is, if you're interested.

Major findings regarding Japan and Western Countries:

• Japanese on average have sex every 10 days, whilst the westerners have it every 3 days.
• Number of sexual partners do not differ greatly between Japan and western countries.

So, yes, the Japanese do have partners, but don't have sex that often. Perhaps, it's because of the closed culture, or maybe the working hours. I don't know.

Also, just to make sure, it is true that:

• Kissing/Hugging people at first sight can offend a Japanese, because of it is too sexual; we have little body contact with a person.
• Japanese do say jokes about sexual issues, but perhaps not as much as Westerners.
• Even a couple doesn't kiss obsessively in public in Japan, with minor exceptions.

So then, I hope my western friends are relieved that what they've been picturing as "Japanese" through me is pretty correct.

But then, I have to point out that I just feel that I was raised up, taught that sexual stuff was a cultural taboo. I guess I'm too conservative about this issue, more than a typical Japanese. In that sense, I feel that I'm glad that I came here. If I was in Japan, I wouldn't have realized this different dimension of life. It's not like I had sex with anyone, but what I've been observing here is something was partly shocking, but really changed my view towards life.

Seeing my mother getting so anxious about having two friends coming over to my place, I really felt worried how I'm ever gonna get married with someone if I lived with my family. Perhaps the time to leave my parents is coming soon, I just don't know for the moment.

But our new house is getting ready to be build, with my bedroom that I partly designed in it. Sort of means, I should stay there for at least some time...

In any case, I'm Japanese, but not a "typical Japanese". Perhaps my French, German, whatever-ish friends are also the same, they are influenced by their culture, but also aren't typical at all. Maybe that's gonna change my attitude towards them a bit, but I guess that's gonna be next year, when we all come back to Cologne again.

For the moment, I gotta write up my thesis! And then, when that's done, I'm gonna look back at 2010, and start thinking about what kind of year 2011 I want.