Hello, if you’re new here, welcome! I really appreciate you trusting me to share relatable true stories about being a trans, non-binary person and martial artist, writing, and travel. I write about my journey of coming out and my lifelong martial arts practice (I’ve been training in Kokikai Aikido since 2008).
I’ve been in Japan for the last week and a half, halfway through our trip. We’ve attended eight of Sensei’s classes so far and trained hard. It’s been great, and overwhelming, and challenging, and beautiful, and tiring. But overall very good.
Most people in Japan look at me like I’m a foreigner, but not like I’m a woman dressing incorrectly / a young person wearing a mask as an ego trip, like they do in the US. It’s refreshing. I think it’s completely fair if people look at me and think mostly, “you don’t look Japanese.” I far prefer it to people looking at me and judging me for my gender expression and clothing choices. It also helps that a lot of Japanese fashion and hairstyles have androgynous elements. And many people wear masks in public, both young and old people.
In a touristy area I received a look from a white man that made me blanch, a familiar look to be sure, a look of evaluation, ownership, entitlement to my body. But what I realized was the peace of the absence of such looks for most of the time I’ve been here. Local women and children walk around our neighborhood constantly, and although I do not know their experience, from their attitude, I suspect it feels safer and they do not expect to be accosted walking from the train station, a contrast from Oakland or Boston. I haven’t seen anyone cross the street to avoid another pedestrian (which is extremely common in the neighborhoods I’ve lived in the US).
Part of this is my privilege in traveling with a male partner and both appearing as a straight couple / as somewhat masculine myself.
