Akiko Wada changes her race (Video)
How about we transform a female Japanese celebrity into a black man and make her go around busy shopping areas and experience life?
Would you change your race and gender just to go shopping? With the aid of special makeup, Akiko Wada transforms herself into a black musician. Thus disguised, she goes shopping in a department store food hall, rides a Tokyo train and does other things she has always wanted to do. She also learns about the kindness with which Japanese people treat her. Hilarity ensues…
They hype things up rather well in the beginning of the video, with Akiko Wada stating that she chose the form of a black man because she admires Ray Charles. However, the video is ultimately a let down for me. I wish she tried to do more than sample and buy food at shops. She expresses surprise at the idea that shopkeepers would so readily offer foreigners the same free samples that they offer everyone else, and the video ends on a “wow, we Japanese are so nice and friendly to foreign people” note. I wonder if she was expecting to be thrown out of stores for not being able to speak Japanese? I’m hoping somebody will take this idea to a new level by putting a black [but secretly Japanese] man in a more sticky situation and seeing what happens.
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