Japan is a country with lots of trains. Japanese people are often known to be very polite. However, these two facts do not always coincide. Often the rudest moments of a Japanese person's day occur on the train. I have witnessed this fact many times, especially while I was pregnant.
This little story is not about rudeness though, it is about the kindness of a stranger and how gaijin (foreigner) look after each other. After having lunch and visiting with a friend and her little girl yesterday, I began the trek home from Tokyo. I changed trains at Shibuya at about the time when lots of school kids were heading home. I quickly scanned the train for seats and made eye contact with another foreign guy, nodded in acknowledgment (this is a typical "greeting" between foreigners in Japan), and found my place to stand as there were no seats. Touma was being a superstar so it wasn't so bad to stand.
At one of the stops soon after, a seat opened up and I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was the foreign guy, who had blocked off the seat so that Touma and I could sit. An older Japanese gentleman noticed the seat and made a move toward it and this guy blocked the seat from the gentleman saying "there's a baby" and we were able to sit down.
After having so many experiences of people ignoring the pregnant lady, pretending to sleep, "reading" the newspaper, etc. in hopes of avoiding giving up their seat while I was pregnant, I was touched that someone I'd never met would help us out like that. I know there will be many times when people won't give up a seat in the future, but yesterday it really touched me that a total stranger would help us out.
1 comment:
Such a sweet story. When I was a kid we used to give our seats to older people -- it was totally taboo not to do so. However, as the world changes so have rules of politeness even at home. It looks like this is true for Japan as well. I'm wondering if it had been different had you been Japanese? Glad you and Touma were able to sit down.
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