Michael Cash wrote:

> On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 23:25:50 +0900, Eric Takabayashi
> <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> belched the alphabet and kept on going with:
>
> >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.
>
> I once taught an English class at a community center in a small town
> in Aomori Prefecture. I asked the students why they wanted to learn
> English. The most common answer was that they wanted to be able to
> communicate with and make friends with people (from) around the world.
>
> That's fine.
>
> But you should have seen what happened when I asked them to stand and
> sort of mill about while introducing themselves to each other, either
> in English or Japanese.
>
> You would have thought I had asked them to pluck their eyeballs out,
> such was their reluctance. They wanted to make friends with somebody
> halfway around the world, but they wouldn't say hi to somebody who
> lived in the same little one-horse town with them.

Some dumb fucks spend millions or go into debt over their cars and
accessories, or perhaps their clothes, but won't spend one yen on people
without enough food or clothes for the winter, or even give a single article
of unused or old clothing, or food they don't eat, which would effectively be
their trash. (I read a news item this week, a repeat of the fact that as a
nation, Japan discards more food than they grow or catch for themselves, and
caloric intake is basically unchanged through the decades despite the
abundance of food.)

Today, on the way to check up on the no futon, no food, homeless man living
behind Fukuyama Castle I walked through about a hundred elementary school
students and their teachers sitting and eating lunch on what is perhaps the
finest piece of grass in all of Fukuyama City.

On the way back from feeding the no futon, no food homeless man with groceries
for the second time since last night, I noticed looking over the crowd of well
fed children, that a man I had given towels and a candle to yesterday in front
of the station, was lying on a bench next to his bicycle, oblivious to his
surroundings and also totally ignored. I gave him two anpan out of the bag I
had opened, having eaten one for my lunch, and because he liked the candle I
had given him, I gave him another candle, the last of some I had bought from a
100 store 3 for 1 closeout sale. Unfortunately, he is also unable to cook in
the park in which he lives, and as a matter of fact, is driven off each day
because it is a tourist spot, and thus must loiter downtown.

When I left for work, I walked through the crowd of children again, realizing
that no one had noticed us. I am sure that the two men (among others) would
have been happy to eat what the children had refused.

Fuck them.

> Sure, Japanese fall all over themselves to be nice to each other when
> there is some group-related societal interest in doing so. But when it
> comes to just performing some random act of kindness to/for another
> Japanese, fucking forget about it. These people can see another
> Japanese fallen injured on the street and they'll just keep right the
> fuck on going. I've seen it lots of times, and each time it was the
> nasty ol' gaigin who stopped to play the Samaritan.
>
> I think I may have mentioned before that four times in this country I
> have found lost wallets and, through the police, returned them to
> their owners. And each time I voluntarily passed up my legal right to
> receive a portion of the money contained in them.
>
> Only one person ever even said "thanks". And he was Chinese.