Contradictions

I was talking to Kodi the other day about the Japanese fascination with alternate realities. I don't know that we have all that much solid evidence for that belief, but I had just read a paper from a Japanese girl about Maid Cafes.

Maid Cafes are cafes in Japan where the waitresses dress up as French maids and treat the guests like their masters. The girl told me that these cafes are in Tokyo and other metro areas in Japan. Mostly, she said, tourists from smaller towns visit them. I never understood if people in Tokyo visited them frequently as well, although I imagine they would to keep them in business. Anyway, we were talking about this, kind of thinking about how Japanese culture seems to odd to us. Later, I was talking to another Japanese girl, Yuki, about these cafes as well. I asked her if she had ever been to one and she hadn't, but she knew about them. I started telling her how different that seemed from my perspective, because we didn't have anything similar to that in America.

As I said this, a spark lit up in her eyes. She said, "what about hooter?" For a few seconds, I couldn't figure out what she was saying. I kept thinking, why in god's name is she talking about owls?

Then she drew a picture and it dawned on me. She was saying Hooters. It was so obvious: Hooters is like another planet. I was shocked by how easily I had overlooked something in my own culture that so clearly paralleled what I considered strange in another. I work with Asian students, Middle Eastern students, African students, and Spanish students all the time. I've noticed a lot of different things about each culture, but this was the first time I actually learned something about myself as well. It was an eye opening experience.

The final lesson in all this, though, is that I would prefer a French maid over a Hooters girl anyday. I've got my bags packed.