Mood:
quizzicalTopic: "Have you ever..."
I believe that there's quite a few foreigners who have come to Japan to explore this amazing world and to some extent, HIDE!
Here's the scenario: you're walking along a busy street, dodging the elderly, small yapper type dogs and the rest of the human traffic who aren't watching where they are going. Suddenly, amongst the sea of faces some 50 meters away, you see a face that could possibly have come from your home town. You see them, they see you...and then the drama builds. You've already made up your mind that you're going to say HELLO at the very least and now your moment to put that gesture out there is only 10 meters away.
But what's happening? They're getting ready to borrow from a chapter of THE BIG BOOK OF P**S OFF VIBES, that's what's happening! Just as you reach the point of no return and attempt to establish eye contact, the would-be comrade executes their well rehearsed technique:
A perfectly timed glance at their shoes, followed by the flawless upward tilt of the head, finished beautifully with what's known as the THOUSAND YARD STARE straight ahead...
Nice one. No rebuttal there, that was perfect!
Sure, I don't say hi to every second person on the street in my hometown, but here, its a TAD different!
And look, greeting another gaijin on the street isnt going to spoil your BIG MAN ON CAMPUS fantasy too much is it? Hey, sorry, I know in your stories to friends and family you paint the picture that you're the only foreigner here and it would suck if your story went like this:
"So like, IM walking down the street in Japan right? And Im, taller than everyone and then this other foreigner comes along, I freak out because Im socially inept and I scurry away"
So there you go. Do you find sanctuary with foreigners or are you the sort of person who will proceed to the next train car because a foreigner was occupying the one you were about to get on?
Posted by englishtreejapan
at 1:32 PM JST
Updated: Thursday, 2 February 2006 2:20 PM JST
