My Privacy?

A couple things have happened recently that make me question my privacy a little, here in Japan. Of course I heard before I got here that privacy, more specifically lack thereof, may be an issue in Japan, but I had figured since Nayoro is fairly large (~30000 people) that this would not be an issue for me.

A few days ago I got home from club activities and was taking a shower in my house. I thought I heard voices, but convinced it was only in my head I continued taking my shower. However, once I turned off the shower I realized that the voices were definitely not in my head. Loud voices, I’m guessing from students, were coming from directly outside of my shower room, yelling “Jenna Sumisu-san, Jenna Sumisu-san!!” Lucky for me, that was the extent of what they did, but it still made me really nervous.

Yesterday I was driving home from Asahikawa, and was on the expressway (because I don’t enjoy speed limits of 50km/h on the normal roads…) and had reached the booth where you pay the toll. So I stop my car and give the man the money, and he says to me “From here you are going to Nayoro?” For some reason, I didn’t find it odd he knew this, although in retrospect I don’t know how he would ever guess that. I could have been going anywhere, and I was still about 30 min from Nayoro. He then said, “What schools do you teach at?” Well, I am a foreigner, and many foreigners teach English, so I didn’t find it that odd he “guessed” that either. But then he says, “And you are only 21….” Ok, ok, now this is weird, how does he know my age…. “Do you know me?” I ask. He replies, “I read about you in the newspaper.” Now, I knew I was in the newspaper, but the fact that people actually pay attention to it freaks me out. I wasn’t even in Nayoro, and this guy knew me!

Sometimes I wish I didn’t stick out so much. Even when I am in a huge city like Asahikawa, which is the second largest city in Hokkaido, I still seem to run into people that know me. Today I came into work, and one of the English teachers says to me, “I saw you this weekend, outside of Loft, by the train station in Asahikawa. But you were with someone, so I couldn’t say hi.” I hadn’t seen him, but that isn’t surprising, Loft was really busy. The truth is I stick out like crazy, largely due to my long blonde hair. In a country that has a very small population of foreigners, and all of the natives have generally the same hair color, I don’t blend in even a little bit. Sometimes I think about dying my hair black, but somehow I doubt that would really solve my problem... But maybe it would help a little…

Any thoughts?