On 10/3/05 10:16 PM, "declan_murphy@hotmail.com"  typed:

> j...@csse.monash.edu.au wrote:
>> Apud declan_murphy@hotmail.com (fj.life.in-japan) hoc legimus:
>>> I've received a couple of gaiginsama notes over the years, but also
>>> when back in Iidabashi. At midnight mass in Hakodate a while back it
>>> wasn't a note but in the aisle for the Eucharist.
>> 
>> Written on the floor? Was this like the cathedral in Calcutta, which
>> had special pews for untouchable Catholics?
> 
> It was a spoken, "let the gaiginsama go ahead of you". It was probably
> intended for a child behind me or something because I heard it just as
> I reached the aisle. Its pretty hard to be offended by gaiginsama.
> 
> Special pews for untouchable Catholics? Strewth.
> 

A waitress once referred to me as 外国人様. I wish she'd put a 御 in there.