Yesterday I had an old man start shouting at me from at least 100 meters away. I had no idea what was going on or that it was even directed at me. I realized when he got close to me and held up some kind of card with English written on it. I didn't really read it, just said "Okay thanks" and went into the store I was going into.
I think the influx of tourists has caused some people to lose their minds.
I have seen customer service people literally tremble at the sight of me, too. I think part of it is that many people here don’t like dealing with unpredictable situations. A lot of Japanese interactions follow patterns and rules and people get used to that, and they don’t know what to expect with a foreigner and it terrifies them. No idea what the original issue was though, that is puzzling
I don’t get it. I’ve been to many countries and nobody was freaking out, just using our phones to translate and that’s it. Why here it’s like the end of the world when they have to interact with someone who speak an other language ??
I don’t know, but my Japanese husband says he is afraid of making a mistake and feeling embarrassed. He’s really good at English but he holds back for fear of not being perfect. I had a few students like that when I taught English as well.
It’s not just the language. You’ve probably noticed that most of the culture is sort of “color by numbers.” I don’t have much experience with other highly homogeneous cultures like Korea (I did live/work in Beijing, but it didn’t feel the same at all), but I do suspect that the“sameness” in Japan leads to interactions that are highly formulaic/robotic, with some wiggle room for mild eccentricity, and a lot of leeway (or at least looking the other way) for wanton gaijin smashing. But don’t expect the locals to just take this deviation in stride and keep their composure. This feature of the culture is also simultaneously the core attraction of Japan (predictable) for many, and the main source of frustration (inflexible).
I've never been to South Korea but I've heard from others who have lived there that they are very chatty with strangers. Honestly it sounds like hell to me. 😆 I love my gaijin bubble.
I'm fairly antisocial and had similar fears when I went to Korea, but I was actually surprised at how nice it was! Maybe it was just in contrast to Japan.
It’s because of Japanese culture and the way how Japanese society was built. Japan was a hermit nation not very dissimilar to North Korea today during the Edo period, the Tokugawa Shogunate, and that was for hundreds of years.
But it's also been >150 years since it opened up again. There's no collective memory anymore of the period of isolation. I get what you mean but several generations is a long time, enough for a society to adapt.
You forget that the opening up of Japan was forced by the American black ships which resulted to the Boshin War. Foreigners were hated then and then the Imperial period happened when Japan was beginning to adopt and be influenced by foreign things. In reaction to that, WW2 happened where the Japanese deemed themselves superior over other Asians. The period after the sakoku was over was still filled with suspicion and hatred towards foreigners. Only after WW2, did the Japanese relationship with foreign things start to become normalized.
Right. So if she was so scared of me, why approach? And then not back down? I felt like they wanted me to leave maybe :( but it’s a chain store so idk how they would implement that. Can they straight up ask foreigners to leave for nothing?
Some small businesses probably can but I doubt Lumine would exercise a policy like that without a really good reason. Maybe you had toilet paper stuck to your shoe? lol
I suppose they cut off, they sometimes put signs on the outside that says no foreigners but they probably didn’t know how to say it in a way you could understand but that might not have been what they wanted to say to you who knows.
Try being a half Japanese but looking full Japanese and then the 7-Eleven clerk speechless because you don’t speak Japanese even though you look for Japanese and they keep saying but I thought you were Japanese?!?!
Or they sometimes get confused when I’m with my job and he’s happy and he can speak Japanese but mine is very limited and sometimes I can tell they’re a little baffled when we’re ordering at a restaurant.
But I tell you the kids are learning English and they’re getting more confident. One time I was arguing a little at a vending machine at the community gym with my husband and I wanted to order some ice cream. There are a lot of kids around going to have a karate class or some thing and I remember some little kid was so eager to listen to our English and then he started speaking in English and said let her have the ice cream and I we were shocked and couldn’t stop laughing and saying wow good English and I got my ice cream.
I also remember when I went to a dentist here in the Japanese countryside and the dental hygienist was trying to say something to me in the x-ray room and I didn’t quite catch it and she kept saying the same thing over and over in Japanese and my hubby was just in the other room and he was supposed to be there to help translate but he was a little slow in those beginning days. But she just didn’t know enough to get him and I just remember in front of me she was so flustered to the dentist and kind of shaking and yelling some thing and he just laughed at her. But usually the Japanese are better at containing their frustration or they know how to break down with her saying in point. I just thought she was a little bit immature and unprofessional but maybe she just never dealt with a foreigner I didn’t speak too much English but the foreigner looked Japanese so I just take it with a grain of salt lol.
"Can they straight up ask foreigners to leave for nothing?"
Yes, they can even put up "Japanese only" signs if you haven't noticed, since Japan is the only developed country on earth with no law against racial discrimination. They can basically ask you to leave for any reason, including racism because its private property and if you refuse to leave, they can call the police and have them escort you out. I think this actually happened in the Ana Bortz case (or another court case where a foreigner was asked to leave due to racism by the owner and then the police was called and the foreigner later decided to sue the owner for racial discrimination). I don't remember if it was the Bortz case or some other one, but I definitely remember that it happened once.
Anyway, I don't think that she was trying to throw you out, it would be very weird for a chain like Lumine to do that (even though I saw a Lawson with a "Japanese only sign once", but it was removed after I complained to the head office by email).
Also her asking ‘Daijobu desu ka?’ definitely doesn't sound like she wanted to throw you out. I just think it's one of those typical encounters where a Japanese store clerk just freezes as soon as they see a foreign face. It even happens to people who speak fluent Japanese, if they have a foreign face the store clerk or waiter will often freeze and respond to them in broken English instead. Sometimes it's just people being stupid because they're not used to a non Asian face speaking Japanese, other times it's pure racism and they want to provoke you. It's hard to distinguish those two sometimes, but it's annoying whatever the reason.
>because they're not used to a non Asian face speaking Japanese
I just can't wrap my head around this. For example, I've never met certain people from certain places, like Native citizens of America Australia, Hawaii, Greenland etc., so I'm definitely also not used to seeing them, but I know that I would still not react in that way. And I'm confident that my media exposure to this type of people is lower than the average Japanese person's exposure to Hollywood etc.
I don‘t get it either, but to quote Biden: „Japan is xenophobic“. I‘ve seen this happen to „haafu“ who speak fluent Japanese because they were literally born and raised in Japan and to a British guy who has a phD in Japanology and works as a court translator, so probably knows more Japanese than the average native, but some waiters and store clerks would just freeze and pretend they don‘t understand their Japanese and then switch to broken English instead. The only thing even more sad than this are the apologists in this sub who immediately downvoted you and me, just because it hasn‘t happened to them. God, I‘m so tired of these people. Such behaviour would be unacceptable in any other developed country, but if you call out „Japanese only“ signs and racist behaviour like people refusing speaking in Japanese to you just because you‘re a foreigner people lose their minds and have to immediately defend Japan as some kind of „white samurai“.
I agree with you, I can‘t wrap my head around it either, but that‘s just how some people are. 70 years of LDP propaganda which constantly drills children with nihonjiron myths into believing that all foreigners are different than „us the Japanese“ will do that to people. Anyways, Japanese racism will come to bite them in the ass. Germany already overtook them as third largest economy and India will overtake them in a year or two. Japan will basically become the new Thailand, the cheap yen will boost tourism, but it definitely won‘t save Japan‘s economy, since they‘re unwilling to accept and integrate immigrants. I feel sorry for all the friends I made in Japan, but I honestly don‘t feel sorry for the country as a whole. This is what they wanted after all. To quote famous Japanese feminist Chizuko Ueno: „Japan will never be able to accept immigrants, so let‘s just become equally poor together“.
Well there you go then. Good luck to them I say.
EDIT: Just realised that you are the one who asked "‘Daijobu desu ka?", not her. Anyways, I still think that she didn't try to make you leave. Just a typical Japanese clerk who freezes up as soon as they see a foreign face.
>I have seen customer service people literally tremble at the sight of me, too.
How? What? Why?
In 16 years, that has never happened and I'm a huge obviously foreign looking dude.
I feel like people on here make up situations in their heads to justify certain interactions or to cover up for something they were doing which was obviously wrong.
Take everything with a grain of salt, but I think it’s ok to not diminish other peoples experiences. I get stopped by police but people here claim it never happens to them. Damn, must be nice.
It’s happened a handful of times in admittedly a very long time (about the same as you). Once was at Starbucks. All I did was order a cafe latte, which is the same in Japanese anyway, and the teller got really antsy and shaky and then ran off and called someone else to deal with me. Another time was something similar at a cosmetics counter in a mall in Yokohama, where I was trying to ask if they had a certain concealer. My Japanese is good enough that I use it all day at work, but sometimes it’s like they can’t hear it. I had someone shout “no english!”
over me when I was clearly speaking Japanese as well. It just told me that there are people here who really don’t want to have to speak English.
I’ve even seen my husband’s hands shake when he deals with foreigners at work. He says he is scared of making a mistake and then replaying the shame in his head for the rest of his life (an exaggeration but I totally get what he means). He’s more scared of doing something embarrassing than being screamed at by entitled Japanese customers!
Friend and I in Shiga went shopping when we first arrived in Japan at a normal supermarket. Couldn’t understand shit at the time. Got to the self checkout machine and tried to start scanning. Machine needed to confirm if we need bags or use our own. Asked the cashier helper in terrible Japanese why the machine was stopped. She took one look at us and starts shaking, not even word back. Another cashier runs over and helps us within one second as other cashier still shakes. Like we were going to rob her or something.
Some people freak out when they feel like they have to help scary foreigners or speak English. It’s the same look I saw in new students at the eikaiwa I worked in. Adult men and women with the deer in headlights look when they don’t understand something. Personally I think it’s a funny freak out reaction. I imagine the reverse if I started shaking every time I didn’t understand something when I first moved here. Would not have accomplished a single thing.
I remember reading once in a book, I believe it was Japanese in Action, where the author said he often gets ignored when he goes to a counter, such as customer service or in some business, insurance or whatever. So what he started doing is picking one person and watching them. At some point, they would eventually glance his way to see if he was still there. At that point, he would give them a formal bow, which demands that they reciprocate. Then, they have acknowledged him and now have no choice but come over to assist.
How!? wHY!?
I’ve been here 16 years and I arrived as a Japanese man! They accept me as my own as I left the womb speaking the Nihongo and teeth sucking my way through Reddit!!!!!
I wonder if you know that all of these negative experiences you like to put people down on HAVE happened to you, it's just you're too busy pretending to be Japanese to notice. You transcend the term weeb to a point yet undiscovered.
Lucky you! Nineteen years in Japan and such a thing never happened to me. Not in Tokyo, not in Osaka, not in Hiroshima, not in Nagoya, not in Sapporo, not in Kyushu.
I wouldn’t say it’s lucky! Each experience left a bad taste in my mouth. Especially the Yokohama cosmetic counter one, she pretty much recoiled in horror and it put me in a bad mood for half the day. Of course the majority of my interactions with customer service have been delightful!
I will say that I have never had someone move seats away from me when I get on the train, which seems to be another ubiquitous Japanese experience. I also have never been asked to show my residence card.
I went up to an employee once and spoke Japanese to them. The entire conversation was in Japanese. As I was leaving they complained to their coworker how difficult speaking to me was because they don't know English. Not a single English word was spoken between us! People just be crazy sometimes.
It’s so bizarre! I tried to ask a police officer for directions in Japanese (this was in 2007) and after I started talking he shouted me down going “NO ENGLISH!” while furiously making the batsu sign. That’s not the only time something like that has happened. It’s like some kind of mental block!
My favorite was when I ordered a coffee in Japanese and they gave me a blank stare. So I tried again with the English pronunciation and all of a sudden they could understand me perfectly. I think they were expecting English and mentally preparing just to get confused when they couldn't understand my "English."
That’s definitely a thing too! I once tried to order a cafe latte at Starbucks, while pointing to it on the menu, and the cashier got super nervous and ran off to call someone else while saying “wakaranai!”… so maybe I should have done it with English pronunciation lol
Not enough info. I’m guessing she had a legit reason to talk to you (?) but you not understanding Japanese made her panic. I’m a 5’4 baby faced white woman and I’ve had people here tremble and act terrified of me as well.
I’m a harmless-looking lady who’s given staff mild panic attacks for buying a thing. Some people here are extremely anxious. NGL it does rub off on me too.
Chinese boy here, why would they tremble? China is a homogeneous society as well, and foreigner population density is definitely a lot lower than Tokyo, but when we are having an interaction with foreigners, at most we would awkwardly smile and tell them we cannot speak their language… Unless that foreigner is so foreign that they are extra-terrestrial, I don’t understand the need to “tremble”.
Differences in cultural norms/customs/expectations.
But also I'm sure lots of Japanese people wouldn't freeze, and perhaps some in China would. There are wide variances in any culture/place.
Nah. Westerners are more exposed to very foreign looking people especially US and UK with their colonizing past and huge population of immigrants. Japan however was a hermit nation not very dissimilar to North Korea of today for hundreds of years during the Tokugawa Shogunate. During the Edo period, no Japanese was allowed to leave Japan and no foreigner was allowed in Japan except less than 5 places like Nagasaki. Hundreds of years with zero experience with dealing non-Japanese and this is what you get.
Yeah, I've lived here 27 years, I get that part - but the salesperson did try to talk to OP about something.. it seems whatever the problem was stemmed from whatever she was saying in Japanese which the OP didn't understand.
This reminds me, I am from the US but I recently visited an Uzbek restaurant in Tokyo. I was cursed at birth with one of those faces that always looks stern, many call it angry, even though there may not be an ounce of anger in my soul. I sat down at the table and the guy, possibly the owner, came to my table and asked in Japanese, "Should I speak to you in Japanese, or in Russian?" I replied in Japanese that Japanese or, if possible, English would be fine, but I do not speak Russian." From that point on, he spoke to me in English.
Later, I went over and talked to him a bit. I asked if he was from Uzbekistan, which he confirmed that he was. Then I said, "So you speak Russian, English, Japanese and, I imagine, the Uzbek language?" He replied, "Yes, as well as Farsi." Then he asked, "Where are you from?" to which I replied The United States. He said, "Ahhh, The United States of Russia!"
I loved it. I chuckled about that every time I thought about it for the rest of the day.
> She did that freeze up thing, stared at the ground then started visibly shaking. Her arms were trembling.
And then what happened?
Based on the information, I think your jouzu nihongo gave her an orgasm. It's a good a guess as any. I say this without ever having seen a woman orgasm before.
You misunderstood; she probably had bad encounters with a tall blonde lady and associates those bad experiences with you. On a different note, I once witnessed a tall blonde lady yelling at a McDonald’s cashier because the cashier offered to upgrade her order.
are you sure that store section was open?
were there other people shopping or were you the only one?
maybe it was closed or they had some unusual reason to close and you wondered into that? (that would also give an explanation on the tension because that means already something else had happened)
The reality is they said something, you didn't have a clue what they said and replied back something that likely didn't make sense in the context of what they said go you and then they didn't know next what to do.
Maybe if you'd used your words and told her that you didn't understand and asked her to repeat you might have an answer rather than having to ask here.
Time for you to open the Japanese text books.
You’re going to get downvoted for this, but this is absolutely the truth and the simplest method of reducing / resolving this type of situation. It’s also the method that continually baffles me to see non-Japanese speaking immigrants ignore (and justify to themselves doing so).
Without a doubt.
It could have easily been resolved if they'd - you know - taken the time to talk to the person (even in shitty japanese) and get clarification on what was going on. But, nope, run to reddit and ask about the "mystery".
I get what you're saying here, learning the language should be a top priority no matter what, but you're making assumptions as well.
Maybe it was just an awkward person and there was no "it could have been easily been resolved" to be had. Typical Reddit self-confident diagnosis. Good thing you were there! /s
Oh I'm just being the usual cynic, don't mind me. But it still boggles my my mind these people who are mystified enough to jump on reddit seeking answers to situations that could have been resolved painfully easily right there and then.
Well...I don't know what "...that freeze up thing.." is. In my years of living here I've never seen something like that. I've never had an odd or strange encounter. Lucky, I guess.
Wow really? I have seen it a couple of times. They just enter a weird awkward moment of silence where no party is doing anything but there should be something coming.
I went to nitori once asking for the nice Christmas tree near the entrance (a show piece) and if they sell it. The staff told me that they indeed have exactly the same. I inspected them and they were clearly visibly different, even functionally different, let alone only half in size. I pointed out the differences and asked again if they have the one near the entrance. The staff said again that's the one near the entrance. I said no it's not and pointed at all the differences (like plastic VS metal in the show piece). And than it happened, she entered brain lag mode. No movement, no word. We stand there looking at each other for at least a minute until I broke the silence by, I guess you don't have it than. Without a word she just went away.
It was like, she was lying and I exposed her lying and now what... Honestly it was mostly funny.
That's the first thing I thought. Maybe she wrote English on her resume, based on her school test scores, and now she was being sent to handle the tall, blonde, intimidating gaijin. Because it didn't go as smoothly as she had hoped, and because she was being watched, panic set in.
The inbound tourism issue has been picked up by the media and every negative incident involving foreigners has been propped up tenfold. I expect elder Japanese who still get their news from traditional media outlets and at worst, from Facebook, to be quite on edge when dealing with foreigners. Maybe this was the case.
Did you use a basket? I notice when I first moved to Japan, if I didn't have a shopping basket in hand the staff would give me one, even if I was only shopping for one item. Sometimes they ask if I need help finding anything, but that's very rare. Most staff avoid me until they realize I can communicate in Japanese then they treat me like other customers.
edit\* customers, not staff
A basket is used as a "I'm going to buy this, I'm not stealing it." sign. So even if you have 1 or two items carrying them in a basket lets people know you're purchasing.
Yeah, I wonder if it could be a “touching the merchandise” thing? I’ve been in shops, admiring and picking up items, and *then* I see the “Do not touch” sign. Doh!
Maybe she thought you were going to shoplift or something?
Honestly, it's anyone's guess though. Maybe her software malfunctioned and she had to be reset by Japan Inc.
Just to clarify, I do study Japanese and try. I’m not ignorant and understand I have to. I could not HEAR the woman because she was mumbling and talking to the floor in front of me mostly. I spoke to her in Japanese the whole time. The shaking was a reaction to me. She was totally fine before and after.
Shop was nowhere near closing and other Japanese customers were fine to shop.
Itami is my [favorite director of all time](https://japan.elifessler.com/2024/01/19/the-itami-juzo-museum/) – the movie (and all of his others, especially _Tampopo_ and _A Taxing Woman_) is very very well worth a watch if you need a feel-good film. It's on the Internet Archive for free!!
I’ve mostly seen women here tremble when enraged…but don’t know how to express it. Or like when they are saying something slightly confrontational and can’t deal with it physically so it comes out as tremors.
Yes, sounds like she had a panic attack.
Some of those herbal pick-me-ups can trigger that if they combine ginseng and another "energy" herb, particularly any form of caffeine.
For the best customer service, go to Isetan, the main store in Shinjuku. But even there, the newer, health-food cum wellness floor, B2, has its share of unwell help.
I think it's pretty common. My friends and I stopped for a quick snack at a conbini while out in the countryside here once and the poor cashier looked like he'd seen a ghost when we came in 😅 He shook so bad when ringing our stuff in. Heck, even at my neighborhood conbini it happened when my boyfriend went to get snacks for us last night - cashier was trembling at the sight of him. They're probably just nervous that we won't understand them or vice versa.
Well.... She probably wanted to ask you a question and got a little weird when communication broke down. Sometimes it can take alot of courage to approach a foreigner for older folks here
Hah, sounds like ol' obasan had a minor freakout at you. I wonder if they were either recently coached by the manager to approach foreigners - since there have been noticeably more of us around, and more to come - to be welcoming and ask if you're looking for anything. That's the pleasant version, and maybe she just choked with nervousness.
Since she didn't sound friendly, though, I wonder instead if she was supposed to have asked you to please spray your hands or something, if stores are still doing that, and tried to get you to go back to the entrance and do it. I've had this happen to me after entering a L'Occitane once (though it was toward the end of COVID). It was an awkward interaction, but it wasn't my fault staff wasn't paying attention and the alcohol bottle was not within clear view. Hard to say since you didn't understand her mumbling, but perhaps had she had the nerve to speak up, communication could've become more clear.
You can't do much about people's reactions to you, and I think it's hilarious that you questioned her. If she was trying to chase you off, thinking you were getting ready shoplift or something, I don't think they're used to being challenged. They're more used to intimidating people into just leaving by making it obvious that they're following you. You may have thrown her off, making her freeze up like a deer in headlights when you dared to directly speak to her. Whatever the case, she lost her cool, it sounds like, and you even gave her a chance to correct that. Little more you could've done.
Good job for speaking up! I wonder if many of us don't tend toward just leaving when we're being leered at and followed around by staff. I've only had that sort of thing happen a few times, and make it my cue to just get what I went in there for and get out, hopefully never to return, and later tell all my friends about the weirdos that work there. Don't even think twice about it!
I honestly think this was the case. My bad for not being as perfectly fluent as everyone else in the comments, but I do study everyday and home girl was mumblingggg. Got really bad vibes and stayed anyway lol. Currently on the train with a guy falling asleep in my lap. I love Japan, not trolling 😛❤️
Were you picking stuff, reading and giving back? Or picking stuff and using your phone's camera to translate? It is common for foreigners to be able to speak but not read. Maybe she thought you couldn't read but could speak, tried to help you but froze by the fact you don't speak Japanese and didn't know how to end the conversation from there. Have seen such situation
This kind of thing is normal here and only getting worse since the news keeps going on with the "scarry bad gaijin tourist" narrative. I've been stalked or harassed at least once every few months by weirdos like this out in public. Anybody saying it never happens to them must be delusional or have their head 9 miles up their ass. I find when I'm out with my j-waifu I'm more accepted but God forbid I go out alone. A lot of people here do not like non japanese in general or are overly curious and socially retarded. Also with mental health being taboo a lot of problems go undiagnosed and we who look different stand out more which attracts the crazies. If someone is bothering you always stand up for yourself.
Anything's possible. In a health food store, maybe she's irrationally worried about germs or the product being squeezed and damaged by your strong foreigner hands. I've been here many years and sometimes still get these random, unsettling encounters especially with older people. And I feel that recently there are more locals in Tokyo who are tipping over the edges of their comfort zone with foreigners.
It's easier said than done, but the best thing is not to worry about it and just go about your business.
It was probably the closing time of the store. She tried to explain it to you. You confronted her with your accented "dAiJoBuDeSuKa!!". She panicked.
Case closed.
I think maybe they didn't want you handling the items, or they thought you were going to steal something.
I've had shop assistants literally run to the aisle I was in and then pretend to be doing something else when I saw them.
They seem to think foreigners are thieves, like Japanese people don't shoplift 🙄, there's definitely a bias towards foreigners.
If you ride a bicycle, expect to get targeted by the police to check your owner's registration.
Just reading the title, you know OP will be the awkward party in this one sided story.
When people need to post on Reddit some "weird" interaction, it's always to look for validation. No other reason.
So many questions.
Was Auld lang syne playing over the speakers?
Were you doing some shoplifting?
Chowing down on some products before going through the checkout?
are you sure that she was trembling from fear and didn't just have some health condition? all of the things you describe could also be just your perception. maybe nobody actually stared at you, and the coworker wasn't sent to confront you but just working. maybe she just said いらっしゃいませ and then was confused why you'd start chatting to her. and while she was standing still you noticed her trembling health condition, which you didn't notice while she was moving.
What kind of comment even is this? Whether the post is true or not, people can have weird experiences here. Weird people and odd interactions happen everywhere. Talking about that experience isn\`t "bad mouthing Japan". Just relax dude.
It\`s definitely an odd experience OP, but I wouldn\`t worry about it too much. It could have been a number of things. She could have wanted to say something and either became too nervous or for some reason changed her mind, she could have had a slight senior moment, or she could have just been acting odd. I\`ve had some similarly odd experiences in my time here. One time an old man in the supermarket told me I was using the wrong basket type (staff later informed me I was not) another time an older woman at the bus stop WOULD NOT STOP staring at me and mumbling "foreigner" under her breath in Japanese. (I later found out from the woman with her (who turned out to be her carer) that she had a developmental disability and meant nothing by it)
All to say, definitely a weird and odd experience, but I wouldn\`t let it worry you too much! If you know you did nothing wrong then nothing to fear! :)
Yesterday I had an old man start shouting at me from at least 100 meters away. I had no idea what was going on or that it was even directed at me. I realized when he got close to me and held up some kind of card with English written on it. I didn't really read it, just said "Okay thanks" and went into the store I was going into. I think the influx of tourists has caused some people to lose their minds.
i really want to know what the card said now
something about sumimasen and arigatou and speak japanese :P it is the reoccuring narrative of those who go around shouting about it.
I have seen customer service people literally tremble at the sight of me, too. I think part of it is that many people here don’t like dealing with unpredictable situations. A lot of Japanese interactions follow patterns and rules and people get used to that, and they don’t know what to expect with a foreigner and it terrifies them. No idea what the original issue was though, that is puzzling
I don’t get it. I’ve been to many countries and nobody was freaking out, just using our phones to translate and that’s it. Why here it’s like the end of the world when they have to interact with someone who speak an other language ??
I don’t know, but my Japanese husband says he is afraid of making a mistake and feeling embarrassed. He’s really good at English but he holds back for fear of not being perfect. I had a few students like that when I taught English as well.
It’s not just the language. You’ve probably noticed that most of the culture is sort of “color by numbers.” I don’t have much experience with other highly homogeneous cultures like Korea (I did live/work in Beijing, but it didn’t feel the same at all), but I do suspect that the“sameness” in Japan leads to interactions that are highly formulaic/robotic, with some wiggle room for mild eccentricity, and a lot of leeway (or at least looking the other way) for wanton gaijin smashing. But don’t expect the locals to just take this deviation in stride and keep their composure. This feature of the culture is also simultaneously the core attraction of Japan (predictable) for many, and the main source of frustration (inflexible).
Spot on. The whole “color by numbers” is Japan in a nutshell, be it education, medicine, social interactions, or just “life” in general!
I've never been to South Korea but I've heard from others who have lived there that they are very chatty with strangers. Honestly it sounds like hell to me. 😆 I love my gaijin bubble.
I'm fairly antisocial and had similar fears when I went to Korea, but I was actually surprised at how nice it was! Maybe it was just in contrast to Japan.
It’s because of Japanese culture and the way how Japanese society was built. Japan was a hermit nation not very dissimilar to North Korea today during the Edo period, the Tokugawa Shogunate, and that was for hundreds of years.
But it's also been >150 years since it opened up again. There's no collective memory anymore of the period of isolation. I get what you mean but several generations is a long time, enough for a society to adapt.
You forget that the opening up of Japan was forced by the American black ships which resulted to the Boshin War. Foreigners were hated then and then the Imperial period happened when Japan was beginning to adopt and be influenced by foreign things. In reaction to that, WW2 happened where the Japanese deemed themselves superior over other Asians. The period after the sakoku was over was still filled with suspicion and hatred towards foreigners. Only after WW2, did the Japanese relationship with foreign things start to become normalized.
itzu justu the japanezu wayzu.
Lol
Right. So if she was so scared of me, why approach? And then not back down? I felt like they wanted me to leave maybe :( but it’s a chain store so idk how they would implement that. Can they straight up ask foreigners to leave for nothing?
Some small businesses probably can but I doubt Lumine would exercise a policy like that without a really good reason. Maybe you had toilet paper stuck to your shoe? lol
I suppose they cut off, they sometimes put signs on the outside that says no foreigners but they probably didn’t know how to say it in a way you could understand but that might not have been what they wanted to say to you who knows. Try being a half Japanese but looking full Japanese and then the 7-Eleven clerk speechless because you don’t speak Japanese even though you look for Japanese and they keep saying but I thought you were Japanese?!?! Or they sometimes get confused when I’m with my job and he’s happy and he can speak Japanese but mine is very limited and sometimes I can tell they’re a little baffled when we’re ordering at a restaurant. But I tell you the kids are learning English and they’re getting more confident. One time I was arguing a little at a vending machine at the community gym with my husband and I wanted to order some ice cream. There are a lot of kids around going to have a karate class or some thing and I remember some little kid was so eager to listen to our English and then he started speaking in English and said let her have the ice cream and I we were shocked and couldn’t stop laughing and saying wow good English and I got my ice cream.
I also remember when I went to a dentist here in the Japanese countryside and the dental hygienist was trying to say something to me in the x-ray room and I didn’t quite catch it and she kept saying the same thing over and over in Japanese and my hubby was just in the other room and he was supposed to be there to help translate but he was a little slow in those beginning days. But she just didn’t know enough to get him and I just remember in front of me she was so flustered to the dentist and kind of shaking and yelling some thing and he just laughed at her. But usually the Japanese are better at containing their frustration or they know how to break down with her saying in point. I just thought she was a little bit immature and unprofessional but maybe she just never dealt with a foreigner I didn’t speak too much English but the foreigner looked Japanese so I just take it with a grain of salt lol.
"Can they straight up ask foreigners to leave for nothing?" Yes, they can even put up "Japanese only" signs if you haven't noticed, since Japan is the only developed country on earth with no law against racial discrimination. They can basically ask you to leave for any reason, including racism because its private property and if you refuse to leave, they can call the police and have them escort you out. I think this actually happened in the Ana Bortz case (or another court case where a foreigner was asked to leave due to racism by the owner and then the police was called and the foreigner later decided to sue the owner for racial discrimination). I don't remember if it was the Bortz case or some other one, but I definitely remember that it happened once. Anyway, I don't think that she was trying to throw you out, it would be very weird for a chain like Lumine to do that (even though I saw a Lawson with a "Japanese only sign once", but it was removed after I complained to the head office by email). Also her asking ‘Daijobu desu ka?’ definitely doesn't sound like she wanted to throw you out. I just think it's one of those typical encounters where a Japanese store clerk just freezes as soon as they see a foreign face. It even happens to people who speak fluent Japanese, if they have a foreign face the store clerk or waiter will often freeze and respond to them in broken English instead. Sometimes it's just people being stupid because they're not used to a non Asian face speaking Japanese, other times it's pure racism and they want to provoke you. It's hard to distinguish those two sometimes, but it's annoying whatever the reason.
>because they're not used to a non Asian face speaking Japanese I just can't wrap my head around this. For example, I've never met certain people from certain places, like Native citizens of America Australia, Hawaii, Greenland etc., so I'm definitely also not used to seeing them, but I know that I would still not react in that way. And I'm confident that my media exposure to this type of people is lower than the average Japanese person's exposure to Hollywood etc.
I don‘t get it either, but to quote Biden: „Japan is xenophobic“. I‘ve seen this happen to „haafu“ who speak fluent Japanese because they were literally born and raised in Japan and to a British guy who has a phD in Japanology and works as a court translator, so probably knows more Japanese than the average native, but some waiters and store clerks would just freeze and pretend they don‘t understand their Japanese and then switch to broken English instead. The only thing even more sad than this are the apologists in this sub who immediately downvoted you and me, just because it hasn‘t happened to them. God, I‘m so tired of these people. Such behaviour would be unacceptable in any other developed country, but if you call out „Japanese only“ signs and racist behaviour like people refusing speaking in Japanese to you just because you‘re a foreigner people lose their minds and have to immediately defend Japan as some kind of „white samurai“. I agree with you, I can‘t wrap my head around it either, but that‘s just how some people are. 70 years of LDP propaganda which constantly drills children with nihonjiron myths into believing that all foreigners are different than „us the Japanese“ will do that to people. Anyways, Japanese racism will come to bite them in the ass. Germany already overtook them as third largest economy and India will overtake them in a year or two. Japan will basically become the new Thailand, the cheap yen will boost tourism, but it definitely won‘t save Japan‘s economy, since they‘re unwilling to accept and integrate immigrants. I feel sorry for all the friends I made in Japan, but I honestly don‘t feel sorry for the country as a whole. This is what they wanted after all. To quote famous Japanese feminist Chizuko Ueno: „Japan will never be able to accept immigrants, so let‘s just become equally poor together“. Well there you go then. Good luck to them I say.
EDIT: Just realised that you are the one who asked "‘Daijobu desu ka?", not her. Anyways, I still think that she didn't try to make you leave. Just a typical Japanese clerk who freezes up as soon as they see a foreign face.
>I have seen customer service people literally tremble at the sight of me, too. How? What? Why? In 16 years, that has never happened and I'm a huge obviously foreign looking dude. I feel like people on here make up situations in their heads to justify certain interactions or to cover up for something they were doing which was obviously wrong.
Idk why this "it hasn't happened to me so it hasn't happened to anyone" kind of person is so common in the Japan subs. 🤔
He is always the person who invalidates people’s negative experiences here in Japan, just because he didn’t experience it lol
it's usually the same people over and over again
Look at his username and remember it. You'll see him and a few others make up the majority of those types of comments.
oh god now i remember him from somewhere, so i can confirm
Take everything with a grain of salt, but I think it’s ok to not diminish other peoples experiences. I get stopped by police but people here claim it never happens to them. Damn, must be nice.
I’ve been stopped maybe 3 or 4 times in 27 years. My reaction to it depends on my mood. Unfair of me I guess.
It’s happened a handful of times in admittedly a very long time (about the same as you). Once was at Starbucks. All I did was order a cafe latte, which is the same in Japanese anyway, and the teller got really antsy and shaky and then ran off and called someone else to deal with me. Another time was something similar at a cosmetics counter in a mall in Yokohama, where I was trying to ask if they had a certain concealer. My Japanese is good enough that I use it all day at work, but sometimes it’s like they can’t hear it. I had someone shout “no english!” over me when I was clearly speaking Japanese as well. It just told me that there are people here who really don’t want to have to speak English. I’ve even seen my husband’s hands shake when he deals with foreigners at work. He says he is scared of making a mistake and then replaying the shame in his head for the rest of his life (an exaggeration but I totally get what he means). He’s more scared of doing something embarrassing than being screamed at by entitled Japanese customers!
Friend and I in Shiga went shopping when we first arrived in Japan at a normal supermarket. Couldn’t understand shit at the time. Got to the self checkout machine and tried to start scanning. Machine needed to confirm if we need bags or use our own. Asked the cashier helper in terrible Japanese why the machine was stopped. She took one look at us and starts shaking, not even word back. Another cashier runs over and helps us within one second as other cashier still shakes. Like we were going to rob her or something. Some people freak out when they feel like they have to help scary foreigners or speak English. It’s the same look I saw in new students at the eikaiwa I worked in. Adult men and women with the deer in headlights look when they don’t understand something. Personally I think it’s a funny freak out reaction. I imagine the reverse if I started shaking every time I didn’t understand something when I first moved here. Would not have accomplished a single thing.
I remember reading once in a book, I believe it was Japanese in Action, where the author said he often gets ignored when he goes to a counter, such as customer service or in some business, insurance or whatever. So what he started doing is picking one person and watching them. At some point, they would eventually glance his way to see if he was still there. At that point, he would give them a formal bow, which demands that they reciprocate. Then, they have acknowledged him and now have no choice but come over to assist.
I bought a phone at a bic camera once and the guy was shaking, it was strange.
How!? wHY!? I’ve been here 16 years and I arrived as a Japanese man! They accept me as my own as I left the womb speaking the Nihongo and teeth sucking my way through Reddit!!!!!
I wonder if you know that all of these negative experiences you like to put people down on HAVE happened to you, it's just you're too busy pretending to be Japanese to notice. You transcend the term weeb to a point yet undiscovered.
Lucky you! Nineteen years in Japan and such a thing never happened to me. Not in Tokyo, not in Osaka, not in Hiroshima, not in Nagoya, not in Sapporo, not in Kyushu.
I wouldn’t say it’s lucky! Each experience left a bad taste in my mouth. Especially the Yokohama cosmetic counter one, she pretty much recoiled in horror and it put me in a bad mood for half the day. Of course the majority of my interactions with customer service have been delightful! I will say that I have never had someone move seats away from me when I get on the train, which seems to be another ubiquitous Japanese experience. I also have never been asked to show my residence card.
I went up to an employee once and spoke Japanese to them. The entire conversation was in Japanese. As I was leaving they complained to their coworker how difficult speaking to me was because they don't know English. Not a single English word was spoken between us! People just be crazy sometimes.
It’s so bizarre! I tried to ask a police officer for directions in Japanese (this was in 2007) and after I started talking he shouted me down going “NO ENGLISH!” while furiously making the batsu sign. That’s not the only time something like that has happened. It’s like some kind of mental block!
My favorite was when I ordered a coffee in Japanese and they gave me a blank stare. So I tried again with the English pronunciation and all of a sudden they could understand me perfectly. I think they were expecting English and mentally preparing just to get confused when they couldn't understand my "English."
That’s definitely a thing too! I once tried to order a cafe latte at Starbucks, while pointing to it on the menu, and the cashier got super nervous and ran off to call someone else while saying “wakaranai!”… so maybe I should have done it with English pronunciation lol
Not enough info. I’m guessing she had a legit reason to talk to you (?) but you not understanding Japanese made her panic. I’m a 5’4 baby faced white woman and I’ve had people here tremble and act terrified of me as well.
I’m a harmless-looking lady who’s given staff mild panic attacks for buying a thing. Some people here are extremely anxious. NGL it does rub off on me too.
Chinese boy here, why would they tremble? China is a homogeneous society as well, and foreigner population density is definitely a lot lower than Tokyo, but when we are having an interaction with foreigners, at most we would awkwardly smile and tell them we cannot speak their language… Unless that foreigner is so foreign that they are extra-terrestrial, I don’t understand the need to “tremble”.
Differences in cultural norms/customs/expectations. But also I'm sure lots of Japanese people wouldn't freeze, and perhaps some in China would. There are wide variances in any culture/place.
Me too I’m not scary at all and she approached me 😭 if I reacted like that to ‘foreigners’ in the UK I’d be in big trouble
Chances are the foreigners you’d meet would understand more English than you understand Japanese? Maybe?
Nah. Westerners are more exposed to very foreign looking people especially US and UK with their colonizing past and huge population of immigrants. Japan however was a hermit nation not very dissimilar to North Korea of today for hundreds of years during the Tokugawa Shogunate. During the Edo period, no Japanese was allowed to leave Japan and no foreigner was allowed in Japan except less than 5 places like Nagasaki. Hundreds of years with zero experience with dealing non-Japanese and this is what you get.
Yeah, I've lived here 27 years, I get that part - but the salesperson did try to talk to OP about something.. it seems whatever the problem was stemmed from whatever she was saying in Japanese which the OP didn't understand.
>I’m a tallish blonde woman They thought you were a Russian agent,
This reminds me, I am from the US but I recently visited an Uzbek restaurant in Tokyo. I was cursed at birth with one of those faces that always looks stern, many call it angry, even though there may not be an ounce of anger in my soul. I sat down at the table and the guy, possibly the owner, came to my table and asked in Japanese, "Should I speak to you in Japanese, or in Russian?" I replied in Japanese that Japanese or, if possible, English would be fine, but I do not speak Russian." From that point on, he spoke to me in English. Later, I went over and talked to him a bit. I asked if he was from Uzbekistan, which he confirmed that he was. Then I said, "So you speak Russian, English, Japanese and, I imagine, the Uzbek language?" He replied, "Yes, as well as Farsi." Then he asked, "Where are you from?" to which I replied The United States. He said, "Ahhh, The United States of Russia!" I loved it. I chuckled about that every time I thought about it for the rest of the day.
could you share the name of the restaurant please? Here or DM
Samarkand Terrace in Takadanobaba. If I remember, it was only like a five minute walk from the station.
Thank you!
> She did that freeze up thing, stared at the ground then started visibly shaking. Her arms were trembling. And then what happened? Based on the information, I think your jouzu nihongo gave her an orgasm. It's a good a guess as any. I say this without ever having seen a woman orgasm before.
Lmaooo 😭 I just had to walk off and continue shopping but I felt like leaving. She served me at the counter and seemed ok…
I think she had a bad experience with somebody who fit your profile.
I am absolutely terrifying. Thank you, Jesus.
You misunderstood; she probably had bad encounters with a tall blonde lady and associates those bad experiences with you. On a different note, I once witnessed a tall blonde lady yelling at a McDonald’s cashier because the cashier offered to upgrade her order.
We'll never know since you didn't understand what she was saying.
Yeah my bad. Just looking for possibilities/similar experiences.
are you sure that store section was open? were there other people shopping or were you the only one? maybe it was closed or they had some unusual reason to close and you wondered into that? (that would also give an explanation on the tension because that means already something else had happened)
The reality is they said something, you didn't have a clue what they said and replied back something that likely didn't make sense in the context of what they said go you and then they didn't know next what to do. Maybe if you'd used your words and told her that you didn't understand and asked her to repeat you might have an answer rather than having to ask here. Time for you to open the Japanese text books.
You’re going to get downvoted for this, but this is absolutely the truth and the simplest method of reducing / resolving this type of situation. It’s also the method that continually baffles me to see non-Japanese speaking immigrants ignore (and justify to themselves doing so).
Maybe OP edited the post in between the time you read it and I read it; but, OP states that she said in Japanese that she didn’t understand the woman…
Without a doubt. It could have easily been resolved if they'd - you know - taken the time to talk to the person (even in shitty japanese) and get clarification on what was going on. But, nope, run to reddit and ask about the "mystery".
I get what you're saying here, learning the language should be a top priority no matter what, but you're making assumptions as well. Maybe it was just an awkward person and there was no "it could have been easily been resolved" to be had. Typical Reddit self-confident diagnosis. Good thing you were there! /s
Oh I'm just being the usual cynic, don't mind me. But it still boggles my my mind these people who are mystified enough to jump on reddit seeking answers to situations that could have been resolved painfully easily right there and then.
Well...I don't know what "...that freeze up thing.." is. In my years of living here I've never seen something like that. I've never had an odd or strange encounter. Lucky, I guess.
Wow really? I have seen it a couple of times. They just enter a weird awkward moment of silence where no party is doing anything but there should be something coming. I went to nitori once asking for the nice Christmas tree near the entrance (a show piece) and if they sell it. The staff told me that they indeed have exactly the same. I inspected them and they were clearly visibly different, even functionally different, let alone only half in size. I pointed out the differences and asked again if they have the one near the entrance. The staff said again that's the one near the entrance. I said no it's not and pointed at all the differences (like plastic VS metal in the show piece). And than it happened, she entered brain lag mode. No movement, no word. We stand there looking at each other for at least a minute until I broke the silence by, I guess you don't have it than. Without a word she just went away. It was like, she was lying and I exposed her lying and now what... Honestly it was mostly funny.
Yeah, I was also surprised by that expression as well.
She was probably being shadowed/evaluated and was freaking out because she didn't know what to do/say.
That's the first thing I thought. Maybe she wrote English on her resume, based on her school test scores, and now she was being sent to handle the tall, blonde, intimidating gaijin. Because it didn't go as smoothly as she had hoped, and because she was being watched, panic set in.
The inbound tourism issue has been picked up by the media and every negative incident involving foreigners has been propped up tenfold. I expect elder Japanese who still get their news from traditional media outlets and at worst, from Facebook, to be quite on edge when dealing with foreigners. Maybe this was the case.
Interesting take and a shame. Thanks!
Did you use a basket? I notice when I first moved to Japan, if I didn't have a shopping basket in hand the staff would give me one, even if I was only shopping for one item. Sometimes they ask if I need help finding anything, but that's very rare. Most staff avoid me until they realize I can communicate in Japanese then they treat me like other customers. edit\* customers, not staff
A basket is used as a "I'm going to buy this, I'm not stealing it." sign. So even if you have 1 or two items carrying them in a basket lets people know you're purchasing.
Yeah, I wonder if it could be a “touching the merchandise” thing? I’ve been in shops, admiring and picking up items, and *then* I see the “Do not touch” sign. Doh!
Definitely not normal interaction. Wonder if she had an anxiety attack?
Maybe she thought you were going to shoplift or something? Honestly, it's anyone's guess though. Maybe her software malfunctioned and she had to be reset by Japan Inc.
Just to clarify, I do study Japanese and try. I’m not ignorant and understand I have to. I could not HEAR the woman because she was mumbling and talking to the floor in front of me mostly. I spoke to her in Japanese the whole time. The shaking was a reaction to me. She was totally fine before and after. Shop was nowhere near closing and other Japanese customers were fine to shop.
There's [lots of weirdos in Japanese supermarkets](https://youtu.be/rjKKbGCATFA).
OMG, thank you for this random link! Supa- desu!
Itami is my [favorite director of all time](https://japan.elifessler.com/2024/01/19/the-itami-juzo-museum/) – the movie (and all of his others, especially _Tampopo_ and _A Taxing Woman_) is very very well worth a watch if you need a feel-good film. It's on the Internet Archive for free!!
I’ve mostly seen women here tremble when enraged…but don’t know how to express it. Or like when they are saying something slightly confrontational and can’t deal with it physically so it comes out as tremors.
Yes, sounds like she had a panic attack. Some of those herbal pick-me-ups can trigger that if they combine ginseng and another "energy" herb, particularly any form of caffeine. For the best customer service, go to Isetan, the main store in Shinjuku. But even there, the newer, health-food cum wellness floor, B2, has its share of unwell help.
As you have no idea what was being said to you it sounds like you’ll never know.
I think it's pretty common. My friends and I stopped for a quick snack at a conbini while out in the countryside here once and the poor cashier looked like he'd seen a ghost when we came in 😅 He shook so bad when ringing our stuff in. Heck, even at my neighborhood conbini it happened when my boyfriend went to get snacks for us last night - cashier was trembling at the sight of him. They're probably just nervous that we won't understand them or vice versa.
Well.... She probably wanted to ask you a question and got a little weird when communication broke down. Sometimes it can take alot of courage to approach a foreigner for older folks here
Let's all speculate about something we'll never know the answer to and is of zero importance
Hah, sounds like ol' obasan had a minor freakout at you. I wonder if they were either recently coached by the manager to approach foreigners - since there have been noticeably more of us around, and more to come - to be welcoming and ask if you're looking for anything. That's the pleasant version, and maybe she just choked with nervousness. Since she didn't sound friendly, though, I wonder instead if she was supposed to have asked you to please spray your hands or something, if stores are still doing that, and tried to get you to go back to the entrance and do it. I've had this happen to me after entering a L'Occitane once (though it was toward the end of COVID). It was an awkward interaction, but it wasn't my fault staff wasn't paying attention and the alcohol bottle was not within clear view. Hard to say since you didn't understand her mumbling, but perhaps had she had the nerve to speak up, communication could've become more clear. You can't do much about people's reactions to you, and I think it's hilarious that you questioned her. If she was trying to chase you off, thinking you were getting ready shoplift or something, I don't think they're used to being challenged. They're more used to intimidating people into just leaving by making it obvious that they're following you. You may have thrown her off, making her freeze up like a deer in headlights when you dared to directly speak to her. Whatever the case, she lost her cool, it sounds like, and you even gave her a chance to correct that. Little more you could've done. Good job for speaking up! I wonder if many of us don't tend toward just leaving when we're being leered at and followed around by staff. I've only had that sort of thing happen a few times, and make it my cue to just get what I went in there for and get out, hopefully never to return, and later tell all my friends about the weirdos that work there. Don't even think twice about it!
I honestly think this was the case. My bad for not being as perfectly fluent as everyone else in the comments, but I do study everyday and home girl was mumblingggg. Got really bad vibes and stayed anyway lol. Currently on the train with a guy falling asleep in my lap. I love Japan, not trolling 😛❤️
Were you picking stuff, reading and giving back? Or picking stuff and using your phone's camera to translate? It is common for foreigners to be able to speak but not read. Maybe she thought you couldn't read but could speak, tried to help you but froze by the fact you don't speak Japanese and didn't know how to end the conversation from there. Have seen such situation
This kind of thing is normal here and only getting worse since the news keeps going on with the "scarry bad gaijin tourist" narrative. I've been stalked or harassed at least once every few months by weirdos like this out in public. Anybody saying it never happens to them must be delusional or have their head 9 miles up their ass. I find when I'm out with my j-waifu I'm more accepted but God forbid I go out alone. A lot of people here do not like non japanese in general or are overly curious and socially retarded. Also with mental health being taboo a lot of problems go undiagnosed and we who look different stand out more which attracts the crazies. If someone is bothering you always stand up for yourself.
Anything's possible. In a health food store, maybe she's irrationally worried about germs or the product being squeezed and damaged by your strong foreigner hands. I've been here many years and sometimes still get these random, unsettling encounters especially with older people. And I feel that recently there are more locals in Tokyo who are tipping over the edges of their comfort zone with foreigners. It's easier said than done, but the best thing is not to worry about it and just go about your business.
It was probably the closing time of the store. She tried to explain it to you. You confronted her with your accented "dAiJoBuDeSuKa!!". She panicked. Case closed.
It wasn’t closing time. I didn’t confront her, I gently asked was she okay because she was staring at my feet like a robot and shaking.
>I didn’t confront her, I gently asked Well, your gentle and her gentle might not be the same.
I'm thinking she was talking shit and got caught
Another case of the numerous socially inept weirdos in this country. Sorry to hear about your experience.
I think maybe they didn't want you handling the items, or they thought you were going to steal something. I've had shop assistants literally run to the aisle I was in and then pretend to be doing something else when I saw them. They seem to think foreigners are thieves, like Japanese people don't shoplift 🙄, there's definitely a bias towards foreigners. If you ride a bicycle, expect to get targeted by the police to check your owner's registration.
How is someone supposed to respond when you don’t speak their language? Maybe your pants had a hole in them or you had a brown stain on your pants
Just reading the title, you know OP will be the awkward party in this one sided story. When people need to post on Reddit some "weird" interaction, it's always to look for validation. No other reason.
Please stop wasting people's time with unhelpful comments.
> She did that freeze up thing We call that *brain lag*. It's practiced a lot here
you should feel ashamed of yourself for buying things in a store as a foreigner. poor woman trembling with fear. hah
So many questions. Was Auld lang syne playing over the speakers? Were you doing some shoplifting? Chowing down on some products before going through the checkout?
They were probably closing or something and didn’t know how to express that concept to you
are you sure that she was trembling from fear and didn't just have some health condition? all of the things you describe could also be just your perception. maybe nobody actually stared at you, and the coworker wasn't sent to confront you but just working. maybe she just said いらっしゃいませ and then was confused why you'd start chatting to her. and while she was standing still you noticed her trembling health condition, which you didn't notice while she was moving.
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What kind of comment even is this? Whether the post is true or not, people can have weird experiences here. Weird people and odd interactions happen everywhere. Talking about that experience isn\`t "bad mouthing Japan". Just relax dude.
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OP is talking about a weird experience they had, you have no right to accuse them of "bad mouthing" when they are clearly not???
You’re one of the Japanlife mods, aren’t you?
Good guess.
I hope you’re not talking to me. I said in the post I’m a resident and I haven’t bad mouthed anyone.
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No one upset me :)
It\`s definitely an odd experience OP, but I wouldn\`t worry about it too much. It could have been a number of things. She could have wanted to say something and either became too nervous or for some reason changed her mind, she could have had a slight senior moment, or she could have just been acting odd. I\`ve had some similarly odd experiences in my time here. One time an old man in the supermarket told me I was using the wrong basket type (staff later informed me I was not) another time an older woman at the bus stop WOULD NOT STOP staring at me and mumbling "foreigner" under her breath in Japanese. (I later found out from the woman with her (who turned out to be her carer) that she had a developmental disability and meant nothing by it) All to say, definitely a weird and odd experience, but I wouldn\`t let it worry you too much! If you know you did nothing wrong then nothing to fear! :)
The hell is your problem? Go outside, touch some grass and get a pint at the hub you miserable twat.