Won't Miss #395 - the chop and/or wave

Walk through any busy, crowded street or station full of commuters attempting to dodge each other and you will sooner or later run across the "chopper". This is a man who thinks that by putting out his hand and chopping through the air that the crowds will part before him and let him through. In fact, he expects that you will facilitate his easy movement through the throng at your own expense

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Won't Miss #394 - being followed in shops

At lunch recently with a new acquaintance, she remarked that she felt all Caucasians should spend some time in Japan to begin to get a clue of what it feels like to be a minority in their home countries. One of the experiences which certainly breeds empathy for black folks back home is not being picked up by cabs. Another is being followed around in stores. This generally happens in larger

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Won't Miss #353 - being a leaning post

My former boss used to complain on a regular basis about something which happened to him every time when the train was crowded to sardine levels. That would mean this happened to him everyday during rush hour. Fortunately for me, it happens less often than that, but it still happens. When the train was extremely crowded, the people around him would simply stand without holding a strap and lean

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Won't Miss #282 - "the stare and swerve"

Somewhere in the cobwebbed areas of my deeper memory, I recall seeing a comedic scene in a movie or T.V. show where a person is riding a bike and is so distracted by an attractive women, that he doesn't look where he is going and crashes into something. Seems rather silly, eh? Well, there is a situation in Japan that happens to me which makes it seem much more plausible. When I'm riding my bike,

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Will Miss #270 - trains crossing closeby

I rarely rode public transport back home because I grew up in a rural area. My main experience with it was riding the Cal Train to San Mateo once a week and riding the Boston subway on a few occasions. The Cal Train were lonely and infrequent, so the experience of trains whizzing by within what feels like inches of one another at high speed carries a particular sense of excitement.

There's

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Won't Miss #270 - eyes open, ears closed

"Speak, Hear, and See No Evil" statues at a local stone-working shop. The Japanese believe they invented this concept, incidentally.
My brother-in-law likes to tell a classic anecdote from his early days in Japan which beautifully illustrates the mental wall that goes up between a Japanese person and a foreigner the minute the former lays eyes on the latter. He speaks Japanese well, particularly

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Will Miss #263 - the shopping bag deal

Japanese people have a curious relationship with shopping bags. I'm talking about the fancy paper kind with fabric or string handles, not the cheap plastic ones in which you carry groceries. In fact, one of the things you'll notice when you first arrive in Japan is that the majority of people appear to have shopping bags with them at all times. While it may seem that this is due to their heavy

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Won't Miss #261 - train access blockers

Perhaps this is normal behavior all over the world, but I never experienced this until I came to Tokyo. Very often when I'm waiting in line for the train to arrive, and there is one person at the head of the line in front of me, that person will not get on the train even when there is a break in the traffic flow of people disembarking. Any reasonable person would get on the train when the door

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Will Miss #259 - "live theater"

A family goes about their business in full view of strangers passing by.
This may be something that only happens in my neighborhood. It may be something that happens in all big cities all over the world. I don't know. All I can tell you is that I never experienced such a thing back home in either the rural Pennsylvania town I grew up in or the suburban California town I lived in for awhile. At

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Won't Miss #259 - absurdly fussy shopping

I shop at a very cheap green grocer (Yutakararya). In fact, in terms of produce quality and prices, I'd say that they're the bottom of the barrel, but still good for basic daily fresh food needs. No one with two brain cells would expect to find perfectly shaped, premium fruit and vegetables there. It's not the sort of place where you find $80 (7,900 yen) melons gift-wrapped and swaddled in

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Won't Miss #257 - public urination

A sign in a paid parking lot asking people not to use it as a toilet
I realize men pee in the streets all around the world, especially when they are drunk and it's night-time, but I personally did not experience it that much growing up in America. I was very shocked to see that perfectly sober men in Tokyo urinate in well-traveled side streets and on other people's private property, even when

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Won't Miss #256 - the "cut off and slow down"

As part of the never-ending competition for space on the sidewalks, stations, and shopping areas with other pedestrians in nearly every moderately crowded area of Tokyo, there is an experience that continues to frustrate me. Frequently, people who are walking behind me will walk very fast just to get around me and the minute they get in front of me, they will slow down to a pace which is slower

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Will Miss #237 - no line jumpers

One of the major complaints that I hear when friends travel in other parts of Asia is that people don't line up when it is necessary to wait your turn for something. In China in particular, it's a free-for-all and can be quite disconcerting and aggravating in a crowded situation, but even in the U.S., you see some pretty selfish and bad behavior while waiting in line. The Japanese are masters at

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Won't Miss #221 - "dirt" parks

Tokyo is a big city comprised of 23 main wards. Each ward is like a city itself. In fact, many students will say, "I live in (name of ward) city." Within each ward are other large neighborhoods. Most neighborhoods have one or two parks, sometimes more, within their boundaries. The vast majority of such parks are nothing more than stretches of dirt surrounded by trees and cultivated bins of

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Won't Miss #218 - train seat pariah

One of the earliest indications that you are regarded as unappealing in the eyes of some Japanese people is the fact that they will get up and leave their seat if you (a foreigner) sit next to them. There's also the fact that people will choose not to sit next to you if you are a foreigner. Some foreigners believe that this is somehow the result of foreign folks doing something "wrong". They

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Won't Miss #216 - super narrow streets

I don't drive a car, so you'd think that narrow streets wouldn't be a problem for me. You'd be wrong. There are several narrow connecting streets around my apartment. All of them are so small that a small truck can barely pass by them and when there is an electric or telephone pole, they have to slow to a crawl and cautiously creep by these slightly narrower spaces. Of course, trucks that do

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Won't Miss #215 - shopping in Shibuya

Shibuya is one of the biggest shopping districts in Tokyo, and it is favored by young people. There are a lot of interesting places there including a wide variety of department and clothing stores, restaurants and the Apple Store nearest my home. While I like the places you can go to in Shibuya, I hate actually being there because of the crowds. Shibuya feels like it is too small for its

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Will Miss #213 - shopping in the rain

Shopping in Tokyo has always been stressful for me. I'm a person who is prone to feeling overstimulated. It's not something I can control. Some people have nervous systems which make lots of noise, crowds, lights, etc. overbearing, and I'm one of them. The shopping itself is often interesting, but the oppressive sense I get from being surrounded by oblivious, noisy crowds makes it an odious task

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Will Miss #209 - koi

Koi have to be some of the luckiest fish in the world. They're essentially "pet" fish which are freaking huge. If you go to parks or places where they are kept, you find that they are very aggressive because they have no fear of humans. They'll often come to the surface of the water in droves seeking food. As someone who grew up with a father who fished and never experienced what might be seen

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Will Miss #182 - not caring about how I look

Some foreigners complain or are surprised that other foreigners don't care about how they look or walk around dressed like bums when they live in Japan. The thing about living for a long time in a culture where you are objectified is that you stop caring about what strangers think of you. If you're going to be stared at and treated like some sort of animal that has escaped from the zoo anyway,

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