declan_murphy@hotmail.com wrote:
> necoandjeff wrote:
>> declan_murphy@hotmail.com wrote:
>>> necoandjeff wrote:
>>>> declan_murphy@hotmail.com wrote:
>>>>> necoandjeff wrote:
>>> <snips>
>>>>>> Nagoya is like an even bigger country town.
>>>>>
>>>>> In the Sydney, LA or Manchester sense yes. The urban area is only
>>>>> 7 million or so, but when you cross the Mikawa-ben & Owari-ben
>>>>> border it feels like a different city, which I don't hear going
>>>>> from say Shinagawa down to Yokohama.
>>>>
>>>> I mean they're a bunch of hicks living in an urban setting (far
>>>> more hickish than Tokyo, by a long shot).
>>>
>>> I'm not sure why you like using the word "hick".
>>
>> Sounds like I really hit a nerve there, Declan.
>
> Not really. I was just bemused by the way someone extolling how
> exciting Tokyo and its nightlife is, and how there is just so much to
> do etc, spent all of his Friday night doing virtual handbags at 10
> paces with Brett instead of strolling down to Blue Note or something.

I wasn't extolling Tokyo's nightlife. I was just saying it is a great place
to live. And Friday nights are reserved for my daughter now.

>> People in Nagoya have a bad tendency
>> to stare down foreigners (and otherwise treat them like complete
>> freaks) in a way that people in Tokyo do not. And half the time they
>> don't even have the decency to look away when you look back at them.
>> They just continue staring like they're at the zoo looking into the
>> gorilla cage.
>
> And you never wondered why...
> http://www.schrepfer.com/photos/jeffprofile.jpg

Hmmm, good point...

> I haven't noticed anything like what you have described at all,
> despite spending the last 7 of the years I've spent in Japan in or
> close to Nagoya. Perhaps you have an unfortunate habit of sitting
> close to Amway reps, or an unusual sense of fashion or something. Why
> are you making eye contact with everyone in any case? Rude man :-)
>
>> When I go to
>> someplace like Itoigawa, I exect that kind of behavior, and it
>> doesn't bother me. When I go to the fourth largest city in the
>> country, with a not so insignificant population of foreigners, I
>> don't. What makes a hick in my mind has a lot to do with his or her
>> bility to accept someone different than they are and treat them with
>> respect, whether that person lives in the most remote corner of
>> Louisiana or the middle of New York City.
>
> Is the usage of "hick" and "redneck" interchangeable in sepponian
> English?

That's probably just my interpretation. But I'd say those two words are
pretty darn close, thought perhaps not interchangeable.

Jeff