Ed wrote:

> "Fabian" <lajzar@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:bpl40f$1p2s59$1@ID-174912.news.uni-berlin.de...
> > Ed hu kiteb:
> >
> > > Japanese are not kind.
> >
> > It's tough when your girl dumps you isn't it :p
>
> Not the case in this instance. Merely an overwhelming feeling of regret that
> I have invested so much of my life in this country

What of it? You can go home and start over, can't you? If I had to, I'd go home
to study to be a nurse 18 years late, alongside kids who didn't make it into
university.

> only to finally realize that kindness is based on ethics, and is not a
> universal human trait.

Perhaps, but Japanese used to have a sense of unity community, which is more
applicable. Even today, there is the expression when being thanked for helping
out, that hard times are otagaisama.

They do in comics and on tv, anyway.

> If you think you've got an example of Japanese kindness, I'd be glad to
> destroy your delusion.

Some Japanese stumble over themselves to do something for foreigners, with
apparently nothing in return, not even a free English lesson. Complete
strangers hand gifts to my mother when she walks around lost because she
doesn't understand Japanese.