Path: ccsf.homeunix.org!ccsf.homeunix.org!news1.wakwak.com!nf1.xephion.ne.jp!onion.ish.org!news.daionet.gr.jp!news.ksi.ne.jp!Q.T.Honey!komachi.sp.cs.cmu.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!x060146.ppp.dion.ne.JP!not-for-mail From: "John Yamamoto-Wilson" Newsgroups: fj.life.in-japan Subject: Re: Japan makes it big in world news Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2003 21:39:24 +0900 Lines: 23 Message-ID: References: <73fde4f0.0307040506.76ea8fcf@posting.google.com> <3F079EC2.A49301A3@yahoo.co.jp> NNTP-Posting-Host: x060146.ppp.dion.ne.jp (210.234.60.146) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: fu-berlin.de 1057495556 2632024 210.234.60.146 (16 [169501]) X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 Xref: ccsf.homeunix.org fj.life.in-japan:1990 Ernest Schaal wrote: > In japan, chikan is the rule for men, not the exception. This is a different Japan from the one I live in, surrounded as I am by very decent (male and female) neighbours and with very decent (male and female) colleagues at work and only once (in ten years) observing any form of impropriety. On that occasion the young woman involved said, as she got off the train, "Hey, you! Yes, you with the [detailed physical description]! Sukebe!" All eyes were on him, laughing and mocking, and he practically crawled out of the train at the next stop. Perhaps I live a sheltered life, but pray tell me about this Japan in which "chikan is the rule". In my teens I hung around some pretty dicey quarters of Spanish cities and gained some interesting - but one-sided - views of life in Spain as a result. Perhaps you can give me the low-down on an equally murky and - albeit one-sided - spicey version of life in Japan, to brighten up my well-ordered, but admittedly sometimes comparatively dull, existence. -- John http://rarebooksinjapan.com