Wear sunglasses?

[SmoochesToYou]

Should I ever go to Japan, would it be a good idea to have my hair dyed black and wear sunglasses? I'm a bit paranoid about having "gaijin" and mocking "HALLOOOOOOO" shouted at me.

Thanks.

[Wakannai]

If that's what you fear. Do you think that by simply dying your hair and wearing sunglasses you can pass as Japanese?

[SmoochesToYou]

I mean, at first glance, not in depth conversations. If they see me passerby, they wouldn't know if I was Japanese or not.
(Gosh, I'm terrible with grammar.)

[becki_kanou]

Your body-language will give you away even with black hair and glasses (not to mention that people don't tend to wear sunglasses as much as in the West.)

As to people pointing and saying "gaijin", it'll happen sometimes, although mostly by elementary school kids. It's annoying sometimes, but like anything you'll get used to it, especially since it's almost never said with malice, but rather with surprise.

And if you can't handle getting laughed at by little kids, well then...

[Harisenbon]

Also, if you think that Japan has so few foreigners that people will continually stop what they're doing to say hello to you, you are sadly mistaken.

Maybe 15 years ago, but not now.

And there's nothing more 怪しい than a gaijin with died black hair wearing sunglasses. Lord knows that I'd run the other way.

[doinkies]

I will once again quote from a post Mike Cash made about staring, etc:

Foreigners (white or black) don't draw 1% of the gawks and unwanted attention that we did back when I first came here. Put this particular concern out of your mind.

Considering Mike has been in Japan for a very long time it would be best to pay attention to this quote...(though I know Mike doesn't like to boast about how long he's lived in Japan...^^;;)

[chikara]

Should I ever go to Japan ...... ? ....

No, definitely not.