On Jan 23, 2:37 pm, CL <flot...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Louise Bremner wrote:
> > CL <flot...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >> Declan Murphy wrote:
> >>> On Jan 23, 2:20 am, Kevin Wayne Williams <kww.niho...@verizon.nut>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>> Jim Breen wrote:
> >>>>> Declan Murphy wrote:
> >>>>>> On Jan 22, 5:53 pm, Jim Breen <jimbr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>>>> To be frank, I never knew residents used to be able to go through the
> >>>>>>> nihonjin line. I could have done it when I was a resident.
> >>>>>> How long ago were you nihoning then? At Nagoya (old Komaki) the "re-
> >>>>>> entrants" was up on the Japanese passport signs at least 1997ish.
> >>>>>> Can't recall if it was kanji only or not back then though.
> >>>>> 2000/2001. I only re-entered once. (I remember I came in from
> >>>>> London on a BA flight, and the stewardess got her knickers knotted
> >>>>> because I refused to take a landing card. She just couldn't grasp
> >>>>> the fact that the re-entry card took its place).
> >>>> Same thing happened to me here in December. I just couldn't get across
> >>>> to her that someone that had a resident ID didn't need to fill out the
> >>>> tourist entry form. I finally told her that I wouldn't throw it back at
> >>>> her, but she couldn't make me waste time filling it out.
> >>> I wonder why they would be so persistent? I've re-entered about 30
> >>> times, usually on a JAL or Cathay flight, and only had 5 or so "very
> >>> concerned for my welfare" stewards/esses. For some reason it was the 1
> >>> or 2 Japanese amongst the staff who needed "I'm a resident and don't
> >>> need one of those" repeated several times.
> >> Why didn't you just show them your Japanese driver's license?  It's been
> >> an immediate show stopper for me on several occasions when they just
> >> won't take any other hint.  The host nationals among the staff don't
> >> always recognize a gaijin torokusho, but all of them recognize a license.
>
> > The point being that you shouldn't *need* to do that.
>
> For as long as we have both lived in Wa, you should understand by now
> that "shouldn't need to" as it relates to "Japan" is an oxymoron.

I'm not going to unplug the earphones, undo the seat belt, stand up,
take my luggage out of the overhead, find my wallet, pull out licenses
and wotnot, and then redo the process in reverse. Not unless I need a
reason to stretch in any case.

I suspect part of the "repeat" is because they are expecting an
obvious foreigner to be speaking to them in a language that definitely
isn't English, and part of the problem is because I don't have a loud
booming, wake up everyone around me kind of voice.