Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2014

I Did It For Love

Regarding “So I Married a Japanese Man” (The Last Word, June 27): “Western men seem to be this mythical dating specimen that grants ‘Happily Ever After’ within three dates.” It takes three dates? Surely after only one date with myself—mythical beyond proportion—there are shrines erected; the rest of life washed out and pale in comparison.

Loved the Does your wife make you kiss in public, btw. It took years before my wife would even hold my hand in public. One day after maybe seven years of marriage, I was leaving on a business trip and she kissed me in a train station—broad daylight!—then looked sheepishly around, face bright red like she had robbed a bank, but eyes sparkling. So cute. One of my sweetest memories of her.—Ryushu

I married a Japanese man and it is great. Don’t get any questions asked, as of yet. Get a lot of stares, but I relish them. Get mistaken for a Japanese person myself as I have been told that I speak like a native. So proud to be with him and cherish our respective families equally.—Annette M Furuyama

I am not married, but find it hard to believe that marriage to a man, or loving a man, has “nothing to do with his ethnicity.” Nor does marrying a woman, or loving a woman, have nothing to do with hers. That’s a pretty fundamental factor in the shaping of one’s appearance (which undeniably attracts people to one another, to a degree) and more importantly, heavily influences the development of one’s culture and, thus, character and personality. That’s an awesome thing to love about someone.—Leah Santilli

I married a Japanese woman and we live in Osaka. I was asked all sorts of inappropriate questions back in America, but not so much here.—Andrew Lowry

FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS

Regarding “Whine and Roses” (The Last Word, June 13): This entire thing boils down to “I am a spoiled and pampered military wife privileged to live in one of the best countries for a military wife. I know this. And yet I want the acceptance of the hoi polloi gaijin community because I let a soldier put a ring on it, and that makes me inherently better than all of you lowly English teachers and Rakuten programmers who actually studied the language or invested your time learning a marketable skill in order to live here.”—dokool

I’m not a doctor, but I don’t think being an English teacher without being able to speak Japanese is ironic. If we’re talking about an English teacher who can’t speak English, then I think we’ve got some irony on our hands. Minus 3 points, Aly.—kansaijoe