What I Like About You

Do you know what I hate?
People lacking every day manners. It's when you go through a door, take a look behind you and hold a door open for some people a fair distance away, who simply walk through yakking to each other and don't bother to say thank-you.
It sucks. They suck. And, it puts me in a foul mood.
On many an occasion, I have turned back around, bowed deeply and snidely remarked: "You're welcome your highness" before walking off.
Only once has someone had the guts to actually apologize for their rudeness - which was quickly (and gratefully) accepted by myself.
Its like this happens at least once a day at work - I'm in a company complex with maybe 5,000 people in it. Perhaps it's just my dumb luck to always hold the door open for jerks.
In Japan, I never had that occur. In three years there, I found the Japanese to pretty much be en masse a very polite country.
Perhaps that was my dumb luck, too, and the current lack of manners here in Toronto is just some karmic evening up of things.
Was it simply me being a gaijin (foreigner/outsider) that commanded me instant respect in Japan - or was it because the profession of teacher is highly respected? Both and neither.
This entire blog is built on observance. I like to watch people. And learn. I watch social interaction between friends and strangers. Let me tell you, while there may be a difference in familiarity, it does not breed contempt in Japan.
The bow (atama) or even a nod is a sign of respect and acknowledgment, and both are rampant in Japanese society... it's almost as though the Japanese people actually walk through life with their head held a little higher so that they can actually see people pass by.
I'm not saying that the Japanese people are constantly bowing and scraping whenever a stranger walks by, but I'm not saying they don't do it. It's like they know or have had it beaten into them, that people matter.
Why I chose to stay three years in Japan wasn't just about a crippling recession going on in North America circa 1990-1993 - rather it was because I enjoyed the people there.
And not just the other gaijin AETs (asisitant English teachers) in the JET (Japan Exchange & Teaching) Programme - many of whom I was friends with or slept with. Okay, maybe that was a reason to stay three years - but I never felt insignificant there in Ohtawara or Japan. Not like I sometimes do here in Toronto.
I know I said it before, but it sucks.
Manners - Gyogi.
The Japanese have a difficult time in saying "NO" to a person and instead have invented 15 ways to say "Maybe"... which if you hear, you know it means no. It's meant to spare one's feelings.
Japanese people are always bowing and offering others a chance to go first. I've held doors and not once did I get anything but a hai domo (yeah, thanks). Not once was I let down.
He has good manners - Kare-wa gyogi-ga-ii.
Okay, people in line don't stand back and  let others go first, but at least they know how to form a line. In Toronto, screw women and children, it's every man for himself - especially on the buses or trains, where Torontonians never met a line they could get behind.
I told you about once overpaying for a taxi (phonetically spoken in Katakana as 'takushi'--ta-ku-shi)  by about $450 - my first night out with Ashley while in Tokyo - and how the driver corrected my mistake. Re-read it HERE. There might be a test on this later.
In the next blog, I'll tell you a bit more about the service industry in Japan - specifically the people involved in it.

Somewhere bowing deeply to the Japanese for showing me the courtesy of good manners,
Andrew Joseph
Today's title is by The Romantics - I love their music! Have a listen - PLEASE.