The Gaijin seat is still alive and well folks. When people rush and fight for seats on the Japanese trains the prime seat they fight for is the corner seat. Pictured here is an empty corner seat next to me on a full train, I saw probably 5 people nearly sit then look at me and decide to stand for 15 minutes.
I deliberately leave it empty to check the current status of gaijin seating. So now when people sit next to me I give a horrified look and stand up and move away. Luckily my office commuting train is reserved and reclining. ┌∩┐(◣_◢)┌∩┐
p.s. foreigners are not the ones sleeping and generally being assholes on trains.
This post is tagged gaijin seat, trains
11 Comments
so my question is, is this because you are a foreign GUY? I lived in japan for a little while and I am a white girl who never had problems with people rushing to sit on either side of me. are they scared of giant menacing frowny men?
man, corner seat is so good… I can’t believe no one is taking it!!
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-Paul Reply:
August 8th, 2011 at 8:20 am
Thanks for stopping by Alex. Definitely happens to guys more. I am bigger than the average Japanese person but still plenty of room either side. If it was a fat Japanese guy they would still sit there. Just one of the joys of living in Japan, it’s probably the thing that annoys me most as it really makes me feel like an outsider.
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Good post! I’ve lived in japan for 20+ years and it still happens to me quite often. I’m a big guy, but in no way menacing! It does annoy me too. Because it is such an automatic reflex, I think it is not really about me, but just the ordinary Japanese person’s innate avoidance of something different. It’s their default position. So don’t blame them. Let them stand!
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-Paul Reply:
August 8th, 2011 at 8:37 am
Totally agree Greg but hate the feeling. Luckily my cattle class train travel is very limited. No more than 9 minutes a day.
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I wish it would happen to me. I’d love an empty seat beside me to spread out.
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-Paul Reply:
August 8th, 2011 at 11:20 am
Funny, it’s only when it’s deliberate actions that it gets under my skin.
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“So now when people sit next to me I give a horrified look and stand up and move away.”
I laughed out loud when I read this!!!
Hey if folks are gonna treat you like you have typhoid ….you might as well “share” that warm and fuzzy feeling
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-Paul Reply:
August 8th, 2011 at 11:23 am
Yes mate, share the love. BTW hope you don’t mind me using your patented picture mark-up technique.
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We should produce 30-minute videos of gaijin-avoidance incidents (with humor in mind, of course) and start our own series…
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-Paul Reply:
August 10th, 2011 at 1:35 pm
It would be interesting to see the various situations, no matter humorous it would still be a shame file.
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Corner seats…This is so embarrassing! I think I’m only now starting to recognize where the confusion and discomfort may come from. I’ll take mental note to make eye contact while asking the person I sit next to which stop they intend to get off at. That way, I’ll more or less know when to take my hand off their knee. Sometimes it is hard to know just how to get a grip on this culture.
Thanks for sharing.
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