フォローすべきところだったのに…
Feb. 2nd, 2010 08:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkanTwenty-four post-thesis hours later found me as drained and blah as when I'd just turned the thing in, so for a bit of a pick-me-up I headed out to Kodai-ji, which is a Rinzai Sect zen temple in the Higashiyama District. It's a sub-temple of Kennin-ji, which I have always thought does one of the best jobs of both a) being a functioning Buddhist temple, and b) creating an inviting environment for visitors.
Kodai-ji doesn't seem to have much going on in the way of the former, but man are they putting effort into the latter. They actually had a native English speaker take care of the explanation brochure (plus, unlike most tourist sites, it contains all the information in the Japanese-language brochure), and they've put two guides in each of the buildings in the complex to explain things to visitors.
Which is awesome in and of its own right, but even better when you throw a gaijin asshole into the mix. Anyone who's spent over, say, two weeks in an Asian country quickly learns to spot them: socially awkward Caucasian men who come to Asia for the serial dating opportunities provided by Asian women who want an English-speaking boyfriend, and because the women here who don't want an English-speaking boyfriend are not good at telling overly persistent guys to get out of their faces.
One such guy had ambushed the two female guides in the main hall. He was a fifty-something midwestern American, who had taken it upon himself to explain Japanese characters to the guides. "And this one," he was saying as I entered the hall, pointing to the "撮影禁止" (photography prohibited) sign, "has the character for 'shadow' in it." This resulted in the same theatrically ecstatic "wows" Japanese give tourists anytime they perform a Stupid Human Trick like using chopsticks or saying "konnichiwa" on command. Judging from the strained smiles on the guides' faces, I could tell Our Antagonist had been at this for some time.
He continued in this vein, occassionally getting characters incorrect, all the while explaining that he had never studied Japanese, but since he'd moved to China, he had gotten very good at Chinese and Chinese characters. To which one of the women then replied (in-nigh perfect English), "Actually, I am Chinese. I study at Kyoto University, and this is my part time job."
Which would probably have shut a more socially adept mortal down, but not Our Antagonist. "Oh, oh, I uh, I uh, I speak Chinese!" he reiterated. "我...uh, 我...uh, 我是...我是...我是美国!"
To which it took everything I had not to bust out with:
But god, I sure did want to.
That will be all.
Kodai-ji doesn't seem to have much going on in the way of the former, but man are they putting effort into the latter. They actually had a native English speaker take care of the explanation brochure (plus, unlike most tourist sites, it contains all the information in the Japanese-language brochure), and they've put two guides in each of the buildings in the complex to explain things to visitors.
Which is awesome in and of its own right, but even better when you throw a gaijin asshole into the mix. Anyone who's spent over, say, two weeks in an Asian country quickly learns to spot them: socially awkward Caucasian men who come to Asia for the serial dating opportunities provided by Asian women who want an English-speaking boyfriend, and because the women here who don't want an English-speaking boyfriend are not good at telling overly persistent guys to get out of their faces.
One such guy had ambushed the two female guides in the main hall. He was a fifty-something midwestern American, who had taken it upon himself to explain Japanese characters to the guides. "And this one," he was saying as I entered the hall, pointing to the "撮影禁止" (photography prohibited) sign, "has the character for 'shadow' in it." This resulted in the same theatrically ecstatic "wows" Japanese give tourists anytime they perform a Stupid Human Trick like using chopsticks or saying "konnichiwa" on command. Judging from the strained smiles on the guides' faces, I could tell Our Antagonist had been at this for some time.
He continued in this vein, occassionally getting characters incorrect, all the while explaining that he had never studied Japanese, but since he'd moved to China, he had gotten very good at Chinese and Chinese characters. To which one of the women then replied (in-nigh perfect English), "Actually, I am Chinese. I study at Kyoto University, and this is my part time job."
Which would probably have shut a more socially adept mortal down, but not Our Antagonist. "Oh, oh, I uh, I uh, I speak Chinese!" he reiterated. "我...uh, 我...uh, 我是...我是...我是美国!"
To which it took everything I had not to bust out with:
AND SO CAN YOU!
But god, I sure did want to.
That will be all.
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no subject
on 2010-02-02 03:26 pm (UTC)And I'm SO glad the Chinese chick called him out on his stupidity. How in the world do you explain characters to Japanese and Chinese people, when they already know it?
Glad Thesis #1 is done! When's the next one due?
no subject
on 2010-02-05 08:40 am (UTC)And yeah, exactly, it would have been one thing had his line of attack been "Hey, I'm a student, how's my learning?" But explaining kanji to a trilingual guide as if she doesn't already know it? Eep, dude.
no subject
on 2010-02-02 04:19 pm (UTC)Punchlines Ahoy!
on 2010-02-05 08:36 am (UTC)And ironically, in many ways, yes, yes he was. ^.~
no subject
on 2010-02-03 01:59 am (UTC)no subject
on 2010-02-05 08:41 am (UTC)no subject
on 2010-02-03 09:45 pm (UTC)I will never cease to be amazed, however, at how many attractive Japanese women date (what appear to me to be) loser gaijin.
no subject
on 2010-02-05 08:45 am (UTC)no subject
on 2010-02-04 12:30 am (UTC)For example, we bumped into a couple at an onsen in Kagoshima. I had hopes since at first glance they seemed pretty close. That was until we exchanged introductions. The woman was visiting and the guy? A JET.
Sigh. Why does the programme continue to hire these guys? You would think that grassroots diplomacy would involve more than wanting to marry off half the foreign guys to the local population. Unless, that is all part of their nefarious scheme to create an entire generation with dual citizenship.
no subject
on 2010-02-05 08:48 am (UTC)Ugh to your story. And seriously, sometimes it's as if JET is the mail-order bride option for guys who want to do a little traveling on the side of their mail ordering. The cynic in me thinks the pgrogramme continues to hire these guys because they're the least likely to leave before their three years are up. >.
no subject
on 2010-02-11 10:37 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-02-12 02:29 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-02-16 06:40 pm (UTC)