"Trent Piepho" <tap@venturi.cfr.washington.edu> wrote in message
news:bv75ft$5gd$1@venturi.cfr.washington.edu...
> In article <Cz9Rb.151780$I06.1533183@attbi_s01>,
> Claire Petersky <cpetersky@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >I would suggest never living in Japan, where you will find people
butting
> >> >into your business and being anal repressives, on a daily basis.
> >>
> >> Unlike Seattle, you can wear any kind of hat you want on a bicycle in
> >Japan.
> >>
> >> You were saying something about people butting into other's business?
> >
> >I don't do helmet wars.
> >
> >But your above comment convinces me you've never lived in Japan.
>
> I've been stopped by police multiple times solely for what I was wearing.
Can
> anyone living in Japan say the same thing?

How many times have ordinary people stopped you and criticized you for what
you were wearing?

In Japanese, the word for being wrong, and the word for being different is
the same. If I'd say, "Trent's opinion is different from mine", and "Trent's
opinion is wrong, and I'm right", I'd use the same word in both cases. The
attitude that different equals wrong permeates the entire culture. You don't
need police to enforce this. Society does it for you.

Stuff people would never criticize you for in Seattle were constant targets
in Japan. What I hung up on my laundry line, when I took out my garbage, who
my friends were, and when they came to visit. Clothes? Man, people let me
know all the time if what I was wearing was out of line. People let me know
that I was out of line about things I had no control over. I was too tall to
be acceptable to the rest of society. I'd be naked in the public bath and my
neighbors would let me know I was too hairy. It seemed the whole concept of
"just leave me alone" was completely unknown. I could go on and on.

My encounters with the police in Japan? That's another post. But I did carry
my alien identification card on me at all times, no matter what.


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
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