Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyororin
I kind of get a kick out of helping people, so if I spot lost tourists in stations I will go out of my way to say hello and ask if they are having trouble navigating, etc. But normally I just mind my own business. I don`t think I`ve ever randomly said hello to anyone just because they were not Japanese.
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I did, a few times. Where and when I was living in Japan there were very few foreigners. The small town I lived in had no hotels, because there were no tourist sites to see there, it was a place you pass through to get somewhere else. Anyway, a fellow JET and I were on the last train coming back from Osaka when we were shocked to see another foreign get off the train with us! He looked somewhat lost and distraught, so we asked him if we could help. It turnout out he had gotten on the wrong train, and there were no more trains heading back to Osaka until the morning. The other JET offered to let him stay at his apartment overnight, since the only other choice was sleeping in the train station, and it was a cold night. He was very grateful.
Another time, I was traveling in Kyushu by myself at Christmas time and felling kind of sad and lonely to not spend the holidays with anyone. I was in Nagasaki when I saw a fellow foreigner, so I struck up a conversation with him. Turned out he was an English teacher teaching in Korea, and had come to Japan for a vacation. We decided to hang out for the next couple days since our itinerary was nearly identical. It was good to have someone to talk to in English and help relieve the loneliness of my first Christmas in Japan by myself.
I don't get the "I want to be the only foreigner in Japan" concept. For me, living there long term in a small town and not speaking any of the language when I arrived (and only picking up simple q&a over my 2 years there), I was always very happy to talk with people in English.