Path: ccsf.homeunix.org!ccsf.homeunix.org!news1.wakwak.com!nf1.xephion.ne.jp!onion.ish.org!onodera-news!news.yamada.gr.jp!news.jstar.ne.jp!nd-tk001.ocn.ad.jp!cobalt01.janis.or.jp!not-for-mail From: "Ed" Newsgroups: fj.life.in-japan Subject: Re: I've finally figured this puppy out Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2003 22:48:40 +0900 Organization: JANIS Net Lines: 21 Message-ID: References: <3FC625A5.7040707@yahoo.komm> NNTP-Posting-Host: 172.21.26.81 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: cobalt01.janis.or.jp 1070200212 15682 172.21.26.81 (30 Nov 2003 13:50:12 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@cobalt01.janis.or.jp NNTP-Posting-Date: 30 Nov 2003 13:50:12 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 X-Forwarded: by - (DeleGate/5.9.3) Xref: ccsf.homeunix.org fj.life.in-japan:8606 "Raj Feridun" wrote in message news:sb0dsvscg0hnb91s5ra4ln3h870g2a2ih2@4ax.com... > I've started conducting an experiment here. Thanks to all this talk of > unkindness every single time I confront anyone Japanese anymore I'm > always thinking about whether they're kind or not. So now I look > people square in the eyes that I pass and although it's still very > early in the trials something VERY strange is occurring. I take my 13 > month old daughter for a nice 30 minute stroll in her baby carriage > every day and so far in the past 2 days I've passed 7 people of > varying ages, all adults. Every single person that I made eye contact > with so far has smiled and issued a greeting. Of course they smile at you. You're not only smiling at them, but you're a gaigin with a gaigin baby in a stroller. That isn't kindness. It is friendliness or curiosity (but only if you are lucky). Kindness is what happens if you happen to start choking on a piece of corn in your pizza and a stranger performs a Heimlich manuver