Raj Feridun wrote:
> I've started conducting an experiment here. Thanks to all this talk of
> unkindness every single time I confront anyone Japanese anymore I'm
> always thinking about whether they're kind or not. So now I look
> people square in the eyes that I pass and although it's still very
> early in the trials something VERY strange is occurring. I take my 13
> month old daughter for a nice 30 minute stroll in her baby carriage
> every day and so far in the past 2 days I've passed 7 people of
> varying ages, all adults. Every single person that I made eye contact
> with so far has smiled and issued a greeting.
> 
> I realize its WAY too early to draw any conclusions here and also
> there's that X factor that I'm a gaigin PLUS the cute little moptop
> baby girl in the carriage I'm pushing. Still, it's encouraging. I will
> report in with further results as the trials continue.

But that isn't a trial of kindness, its a trial of how people respond to 
what is to all intents and purposes a harmless freak show. In most parts 
of this fair land the chances of a Japanese denizen encountering a 
*male* gaigin pushing a cute baby girl along in a pram is only slightly 
higher than encountering a *male* bug eyed green martian pushing a cute 
baby bug eyed green martian along in a pram. Lose the prop and the 
response will probably change, outside Matsuyama's backblocks at least.



-- 
"All sepponians are loud, round overweight folk who think their opinions 
are facts" (except the Raj, who is emphatically not a fat bastard). All 
good Germans like beer. The Koreans are the French of Asia. Pommies are 
good at rugby"