Claire Petersky wrote:
>
> I'm thinking that, if you went this route, you should have an intermediary
> apologize on your behalf. The best person for this would be someone at your
> mutual workplace who is above the both of you in the hierarchy. This person
> would explain that we need to excuse the gaijin for his eccentricities, yes,
> strictly speaking it's against the rules, but let's just turn a blind eye
> for now, after all, he's only a gaijin, and he's valuable to this
> organization.

I agree completely.  In a society where they have hundreds of ways of avoiding
the confrontation of saying "No", confrontation is never going to be
effective.  Law and logic play a minor role compared to personal interactions
and peer pressure.  "Gomen nasai, gaikokujin desu" with appropriate lowering
of the head solved many problems for me.  Even had the local police turn out
in Uji to break into my illegally parked car when I locked the keys inside.
Lots of light hearted despair of the "I don't know , gaijins huh" and pointing
out of the no parking signs and teasing me before a grateful bowing and
thanking session and being told it would be OK to leave the car parked
illegally for an hour or two while we went in search of green tea.

Tony