Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyororin
I really find all the stare talk fascinating as apparently I live in another Japan where this doesn`t happen. No one around is "startled" by foreigners, let alone giving them glares. Or maybe this is just me? Which leads me to wonder what other people are doing that earns them so much staring - especially as Japanese people don`t tend to give nasty looks in the first place.
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I agree with this 100%. I have probably spent 5 years in Japan spread over the last 20+, and only newbies feel stared at. Chances are they aren't doing anything, I think, but just are assuming that because they aren't Japanese they are drawing attention. Again, in Tokyo, you could be juggling 30 kittens and not get a second glance by most people.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyororin
Wait, next to old ladies? Were you sitting in the elderly/priority seating area? Because that should earn a glare regardless of where you`re from.
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I am not sure about Nagoya, but in Osaka the "silver seat" situation seems pretty disrespected by Japanese, mostly. I don't sit in them just as I usually am not so tired I feel I need to sit down.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyororin
I think this is pretty much accurate. I`ve been riding the trains for over 10 years, and have never had stares or people not sitting by me. I`ve never heard anyone talking negatively about foreigners/me.
I have however seen other foreigners sit down and take up two or three spots with their way of sitting, or plop their bag on the seat next to them when it is crowded in the train, or sit in the priority area without noticing, or keep talking loudly with friends, or be generally inconsiderate.
I have had other people with me who only speak poor or elementary Japanese THINK that other people were talking about them - when the other people were really talking about something completely unrelated. (And the lower level Japanese speaker think they were quite sly for "understanding" the people talking about them, saying something to the people who were talking - earning them stares and avoidance... Which is pretty understandable as I think I`d do the same if I were talking to a friend and someone came up and said "I understand what you`re saying!" or "I know you`re talking about me!")
Having seen far more people misinterpret normal things as being negative toward them than actually have negative things happen to them... I tend to take these accounts with a grain of salt. There is WAY too much "this happened to me because I was a foreigner!" and way too little "this happened to me because I was doing something something" - when most of the time it is something that would earn a Japanese person just as many stares. People aren`t going to not look when you do something that they find weird just because you`re not Japanese.
Seriously though, I have been waiting 12 years to catch someone saying something about me thinking I couldn`t understand them so that I could make some snarky comment - and have yet to find even one.
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It is human nature. If you cannot understand what someone is saying, you assume they are talking negatively about you. I have taken several groups of students to Japan, from the ages of elementary 4th and 5th grade to high school age. Invariably there will be occasions when people say "I think they are talking negatively about us" and invariably it is something incredibly innocuous, like "I saw her shoes on sale at the mall" or something like that.
My point in responding to this post is to emphasize that the super-star status of foreigners in Japan went out decades ago. At this point, no one really cares. Yes, we are welcome, and encouraged and are talked to, but no one thinks blonde hair is spun from gold and blue eyes are made of diamonds. At the same time no one thinks you are a terrorist or a rapist, unless you act like one.
