[MMM]

Originally Posted by WingsToDiscovery

And this is once again where you're saying it's okay to judge us just because there's less of us.

Here is the problem. What JUDGEMENT has been made? You were IDENTIFIED as a tourist. That identification was mistaken. When I see a person with long hair and a skirt my mind identifies the person as a woman. 99+% of the time my mind's identification is correct, so I don't question it every time, or else I am going to spend all day wondering if everyone is a woman, or a man in woman's clothing.

Every so often I will be wrong, but just to get through the day, I am willing to take those odds.

This is exactly what happened to you. You were misidentified, and you corrected it.

What's your damage?

Originally Posted by WingsToDiscovery

I'm not anti-tourist, I'm anti-unnaceptance. I don't see why foreigners can't live here without the pretext or notion that we all must be tourists because we're not Japanese.

Again, you are mistaking misidentification for unacceptable. Explain in detail how you were treated as unacceptable.

Originally Posted by WingsToDiscovery

Well, it did take me over a month to find an apartment, after several rejections for being gaijin. Or that I paid more up front for my apartment than my Japanese friend who moved into the same building (same apartment style). Granted, those aren't "tourist status," they're gaijin related though.

Again, welcome to life as a foreigner in Japan. You can thank the decades of foreigners before you who bailed out on leases and left their apartments in condemnable conditions. Yes, it is not fair you have been judged for the people before you. That's life in a society where it is not the law that everyone must be treated equally. Again, you are applying your Western standards to a non-Western society. How many times do you need to get burned before you stop putting your hand in the fire?

Originally Posted by WingsToDiscovery

Poor service to me would be speaking to me in broken English as I'm fully well speaking in Japanese to them. Or being heckled by people on the streets who specifically target gaijins for their shops/wares.

You are unbelievable. You would be offended if someone tried to speak to you in your native language? That is incredible!

I am glad you moved there now, and not in the early 90s when I was there. I heard almost daily how amazing my Japanese was. People tried to speak to me in English all the time. I was offered a fork once at a ramen shop.

I was really thrilled to go to Osaka earlier this year and was slightly thrilled at the end of the day to realize in all the shops where I had talked to shop people, not once had anyone misunderstood me, commented on my Japanese, or complimented me. I kind of felt like finally foreigners have been accepted as speakers of English. This is a new idea, in the last 20 years or so, and I am happy Japan can adjust so quickly.

Originally Posted by WingsToDiscovery

No, it was a correlation between not being Japanese and given a handout, compared to giving a minority in the states a handout for no reason.

Discounts for tourists are pretty normal in Japan. Ever heard of the Japan Rail Pass? Don't they have that in Europe, too, to encourage tourism? A "discount" is not a "handout". Again, I don't know what you are complaining about.

Tourists complain about taxi drivers in New York and Washington DC for OVERCHARGING foreigners. I have never heard of someone complaining about being undercharged before.

Originally Posted by WingsToDiscovery

I only sound like that because you're provoking my viewpoint without any legitimate merit to yours, IMO.
If voicing one complaint turns one disgruntled, then I don't know what it would take to be up to your standards.

You raised a fuss because a shop worker tried to give you a discount that in actuality you didn't deserve. Just as 99+% of the foreigners in Tokyo are tourists and business travelers, 99+% of people wouldn't complain about being offered a discount based on the fact they appeared to be a tourist. It is called good business practices. You are that "less than 1%" that is going to, for some yet unexplained reason, be offended. Their business model is solid.

You are not disgruntled because you made a fuss when it was probably not deserved. You are disgruntled because you are not seeing why you look a little silly complaining about it.

Originally Posted by WingsToDiscovery

So is assuming I don't belong because I'm not Japanese.

Tourist = "don't belong"?
This is a new paradigm to me.

Originally Posted by WingsToDiscovery

What's the difference? Assumptions are still ignorant, and they perpetuate stereotypes. These lead to racism.

Like I said above, if you see something walk like a duck and quack like a duck, chances are your brain is going to identify it as a duck. Every so often you will be wrong. The H&M shop staff was wrong.

So want to take it to the Supreme Court? Great. What are your damages?

For a crime to have been committed, there must be damages. What are yours?

Originally Posted by WingsToDiscovery

In my opinion, yes. It is understood that rice is a major staple in the Japanese diet, but with that type of connotation, the question is an ignorant one.

I have enjoyed all your posts up until now, Wings, and I am really excited and happy to read about your adventures to Japan. But even if you don't see it, you are turning into "that guy" I talked about.

People in Japan talk all the time about how much rice they eat or their sons eat in a day, how many times a day they cook rice, etc. This is normal conversation. If you think assuming a Japanese man eats rice makes you racist or ignorant, it may be time to head back to the old U.S. of A, or allow your mind to "open up" to a different way of thinking where people understand that we, as human beings, DO racial profile all day. Our brains DO make assumptions and decisions without having 100% of the facts on a moment-to-moment basis.