Today as I was walking home from class, these two high school kids kept looking back at me, over and over. After the forth or fifth time, I decided that if they looked back at me again, I was going to talk to them. But when they looked I was always caught off guard, so instead when I walked past them I said "konnichiwa!" The girl just looked at me in surprise, and the guy says "おっ！こんにちは！" ("Oh! konnichiwa!") back in shock. After I walked past I couldn't help laughing a little at their shock! "Oh! The foreigner! She... she talks!"
From now on, when someone stares at me too many times, I'm going to say hi to them. It's your own fault if you can't stop looking if I start talking to you, Japan!!
I live in Tokyo where there are a lot of foreigners, so the staring is usually kept down to a minimum, but if I were in Osaka or something, I think it might be a lot worse. At first it did bother me a bit, though, however small it might have been. It was kind of embarrassing to have people staring at me all the time. But after a while I just chalked it up to people thinking I'm cute, and just left it at that. And if it's not that they think that I'm cute, and they just think I'm funny looking... I'd like to keep my own little delusions, kay? So don't burst my bubble, mmkay?
But I think in the end, even if being stared at is a little awkward sometimes, because I stand out, people are eager to meet me, so it's a lot easier to make friends. To me, that's a huge advantage! And then because they're so eagar to make friends, I can sort of break the rules a little bit and talk to them--and they feel relieved that they can talk to me, and not have to break the rules.
For example, the other day I was at a restaurant with my friends, and because there isn't a lot of space in Japan, the booths are impossibly close together. So when I caught the guy's eye from the booth next to me, I just said "Ohayou!" on a whim (which is cute and casual) which lead to them telling "the foreigner" that right now it's the night, so I should use "konbanwa". Of course, I knew this perfectly well, but I can play the stereotypical dumb foreigner who doesn't know anything about Japan for a while if that means getting to talk to new people. ふっふっふっ！！
Anyway, because I talked to that one group, the rest of them started rushing in to talk to me as well, which was pretty awesome. And if I hadn't been the object of their awkward staring for a while, I never would have gotten that much of an opportunity to talk to them!
I guess another thing that really helps me, though, is the fact that my pronunciation of Japanese is pretty good. I think people don't feel as awkward talking to me, and feel like I'll be able to understand better because I sound pretty native. So I think I might be a little bit more able to talk to Japanese people (or at least spark a little interest) because they'll say more to me (Not that I can always understand but...).
Anyway, sorry for this little impromtu blog without pictures. Recently I've gotten really busy, and putting pictures on here is difficult, so I always put it off. I swear I'll do it... sometime.
--Caitlin
