31 May 2022
Today we’re going to conclude the discussion we started in the last issue about names and nicknames in Japan.
When last we met, I had been dubbed Wako-chan by the master of a gay bar.
In the subsequent months, through the beginning of 1990, I dated a few men, briefly. Some gave me new nicknames. A man I am still friends with dubbed me Watchan, which I liked. Others shortened the Japanese version of Brian, Buraian, to Bura-chan, which I was never really fond of. (The Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of something dangling or being buffeted by a breeze is bura-bura.)
But 1990 was also when I learned about a gay BBS in Tōkyō. I realize that some of you are too young to know what a BBS was, but in the days before the Internet took off, people used computer modems to dial in to a private server that acted as a combination message board and chat room. GayNet Japan (GNJ) allowed for simultaneous connections from eight callers, and once your modem ended its metallic karaoke, you could check messages, read chats, and then hang up (because phone calls were expensive back then).
To join GNJ, I needed a handle name. The maximum number of characters was eight, and something memorable yet anonymizing was preferred. I therefore shied away from my given names and my family name.
What to call myself? The anxiety built as the phone connection cost increased. Two minutes, three minutes, five minutes… think, Brian, think!
Something Japanese… something cute… maybe from folklore? What about Momotaro? That’s eight letters. Yes!
(Momotarō, 桃太郎, Peach Boy in English, is a folktale that begins with a barren old couple fishing a giant peach from a stream. From that peach bursts forth a baby boy, who goes on to fight demons with his animal pals, a monkey, a dog, and a pheasant.)
Momotaro happened to be a clever nickname for a few other reasons. Even before we had a peach emoji, peaches (桃 – momo) and peach color (桃色 – momo-iro) signified sexual intimacy. I love me my double entendres!
But homophones abound in Japanese and it happens that momo is also the reading of a different character, 腿, meaning thighs! Juicy!
People I met on GNJ continue to call me either Momotaro or Momo-chan. The latter is definitely my favorite (perhaps because my husband uses it), and I love it when other friends use it too.
