CL totally sneezed all over fj.life.in-japan with a withering cloud of snot:

>The 2-Belo wrote:
>> CL totally sneezed all over fj.life.in-japan with a withering cloud of snot:
>> 
>>> Oddly enough, the
>>> several times I have been stopped since, simply responding in Japanese
>>> has always led to a "Oh, you're a long-term resident?  Have a nice day."
>>> kind of answer.
>> 
>> Reading stuff like this mystifies me. I haven't been stopped and asked for ID by
>> anyone in this country for what, 12 years? Perhaps I look sweet and innocent?
>> 
>> (Not like I wish for this trend to change, or anything...)
>
>It's happened to me 2~3 times in 20+ years and, each time it turned out 
>that they were looking for a specific person who looked nothing like me. 

In fact I can recall the specific occasion: it was one night at omigod-o'clock
in downtown Gifu, years ago, and I was walking back to my hole in the wall
apartment after a night of pouring beer into my face. I wasn't wobbily sloshed
or anything, but I had obviously tied one on. I walked across a narrow side
street against a red light in full view of a couple of coppers out on patrol.
They stopped me, asked for my alien card, and gave me a short lecture on the
evils of jaywalking. I suspected they were bored out of their skulls more than
anything else.

Thanks to my German ancestry I am quite jolly when drunk and was apologetic and
overall pleasant to the pair of badges, and they let me go. I've been lucky
enough to never have been stopped and harrassed in any fashion since then.

Not that I'm ever relaxed about it, however. I still harbor this wild phobia of
police in general, and get quite nervous around them. I'm glad this has never
worked against me.


-- 
The 2-Belo [the2beloATmsdDOTbiglobeDOTneDOTjp]
Emperor, Meow (Retired, on generous military pension)
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The police chief had this to say: 'It was either one 
psychopath, full of hate... or a group of five psychopaths 
with 20 percent of the hate for each.'" -- John F. Stepp