Your "in Japan" story

[Mark of Zorro]

This thread is to post personal stories of any interesting or amusing incidents and situations you have experienced in Japan. Its not really meant to be an "only in Japan" thread, because crazy and weird stuff happens everywhere.

Tell us a story.

 

[Mark of Zorro]

This is kind of funny/bizarre. And only one real reason why it could happen only in Japan: the tradition of taking your shoes off at the door even at schools.

This was when I was teaching at junior high. As I was leaving for the day, one girl was opening all the doors of the teacher's shoe locker, taking out the shoes and sniffing them. At first I thought she was cleaning the lockers cause they sometimes do that, but I asked her what she was doing and she unabashedly told me that all she was doing was sniffing them to see who had stinky shoes and who didn't. And she was approaching my shoe locker. Then she remarked that my shoes must be stinkiest of all!

Kind of annoying that. But, I have to admit that while there are certainly poor reasons to make such an assumption, such as racism and just disliking someone, there are good reasons also, such as noting the fact that in western countries we don't remove our shoes so much or in public, so some people really don't care about the state of their feet, their socks, or their shoes, and yes, I have run into some Americans who seem to have not removed their shoes or changed their socks or washed their feet for a month, and I had the bad luck to be around when they finally took off their shoes. JESUS! Still, I could not help but feel a little offended.

Anyway, she gets to my locker, takes out my shoes, and she could not smell anything all. Of all the shoes, only mine had no smell. And they were old shoes too, or they would have at least smelled like new shoes. Nope. Nothing. Man was she surprised! And then I could not help but feel a little proud!

Thing is, my feet do not sweat nor do they produce any oil. My feet are so dry, the skin is a bit cracked. But no smell.

So now she will probably go on thinking that gaijin feet don't smell....until one day....she will get a BIG surprise!

 

[AquaLung]

An elderly gentleman tried to wrestle with me (I think that's what he was doing) in Narita.

I was walking up some street near the old town area, and there was a very inebriated older gentleman stumbling along the sidewalk. So much so it looked like he would literally leap sideways into the street before catching himself to walk back to the sidewalk. I tried to help him to sit down somewhere off to the side. I actually really had little choice but to do that as I was too close to avoid him, and he had grabbed my arm. There was also another gentleman there who tried to help him also, who motioned to me with his hand that the man had been drinking (which was of course very obvious). But the inebriated gentleman focused on me as I am not Japanese, and began to try and wrestle with me.

There were a few bystanders watching, but enough to cause me some embarrassment. I tried to look like I had things under control, but I had that feeling all along the situation was going to be ridiculous. And eventually I just go too irritated and pulled my arm away and walked off.

In a hotel in Atami, I was washing some clothes in the indoor steam bath area of the hotel. A man walked out of the steam bath not realizing that he was walking out into the public area of the hotel. I heard some yelling, looked over, and saw an unclothed man (except a towel and probably feet thongs) quickly run back in.

 

[Grandpa Frank]

Most of the "WOW" moments of my life.............

usually have something to do with mother nature. In my 63 years here on earth , one of the most beautiful and amazing things I have seen took place in Fukuoka Japan. The Hakata spy base in Fukuoka was an old WWII Japanese seaplane base right on the ocean. There was a long cement ramp there where you could sit and listen to the waves crash in, very peaceful. One night I went down and it looked like the ocean was on fire with a bright blue-white light as the waves broke on shore. You could look down in the water and see glowing fish swimming also. From what I read , it was caused by millions of phosphorescent plankton glowing in the water. Living in Maine , the Atlantic is too cold for this to happen so I had never seen nor heard of it before. It only seemed to last a few days, but I really enjoyed seeing it.

Uncle Frank

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[baskerville]

^ Uncle Frank, that is indeed beautiful. I hope I can see that in person too.

Mine are not very funny but I'll share them anyway.
1. On my first trip to Japan, I noticed a high school girl standing in front of me on the train. I was surprised to see her sleeping. I thought I could do that too, sleep while standing up on the train. So the next day, after a day of sightseeing, I boarded a train back to my dorm and closed my eyes while standing. I did it. I slept standing up! But I ended up in the next city.

2. I was staying at the house of a friend. One night as I was about to enter the bath, her eldest kid ran after me with his towel and he was saying that he's going to take a bath with me. I was horrified and was going "what?? no way. Go have your bath first blah blah". The kid was pretty insistent but I told him I didn't want a bath after all and he threw an tantrum. It turns out, it was pretty normal for a kid to take a bath with his parent and I didn't know this before. (This was many years ago...when I didn't know a lot about things like these...). I was really embarrassed

 

[Grandpa Frank]

My time in Japan sure changed my life around.

My 2 years in Fukuoka had a major effect on my life. I was stationed at Hakata Air Base , a major electronic spy base in the 70's. I held a high top secret clearance and had high hopes of working for the CIA after my 4 years in the Navy were up. We were warned over and over about falling in love with any foreign national and how it would ruin our career if we married one. In Japan , I was warned over and over about falling in love from higher ups. Sorry to say I did not listen and fell deeply in love with my "Yoshiko". After a year of living together , I put in my request to marry her early on a Monday morning. Early Wednesday morning, I found myself on a plane headed for Adak Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. I still insisted I wanted to return to Japan and marry as soon as my 4 years were up, so my security clearance was revoked for good. My last year in Adak was spent as the base chaplain's yoman. I quit drinking and smoking and swearing like a sailor after my year working with him. I returned home to Maine , got a job and an apartment and sent for my true love , Yoshiko, to come to Maine and marry me. For many reasons of her own , she decided to stay in Japan and that was the end of my "love story". I often wonder if I had not fallen so in love , how my life would have ended up.

Uncle Frank

 

[theBrokenMonkey]

That was beautiful, Uncle Frank, though a little bit on the sad side. I wanted to share something as well but after that I just can't.