big caucasian guy just looked in, saw me at the computer, opened the door and said “konichiwa.” i said “hello” and he raised his eyebrows, looked back at his friend, and said “hello?” pointing at me, obviously surprised that i spoke english. i said “i’m from america” by way of explanation and i can’t imagine i said it in a very friendly manner. he said “you go to sleep now arigato” (in fake asian accented broken english). don’t think he works here, just wanted to talk to other hostel residents i guess.
sharon mentioned that some storekeepers thought she was japanese too. i’ve only had 1 person in a store greet me in japanese (i assume she asked me if i wanted a basket cuz she was offering a basket). never underestimate the power of body language… ha!
i tried to talk to a lady today at the bus stop who pointed at herself and said “japanese.” then she said my face looked japanese haha.
Aw. Boo.
People are weird.
Hawaii of all places??? Weird. Maybe you’re just in extra-touristy places?
it’s true. we were in waikiki, the most touristy of them all. there are a lot of japanese people that visit hawaii and that live there. you can get a lot of menus in english or japanese and bus stops are also listed in english and japanese and stuff. you see a lot of tour buses labeled “NIPPON TOURING COMPANY” full of japanese people on the streets, too. japan is close by i guess. also at the teppenyaki restaurant, we noticed our chef speaking in japanese to some japanese-only-speaking guests at our table and we asked him if he grew up speaking it (he didn’t really, though he’s a very small part japanese) … he said it was just part of job training, required for working at that restaurant.