This morning while I was running to catch the train, my cellphone fell out of my pocket and while trying to hold on to my bag to swipe down and pick up my phone, my new ballet flats went slippery on me and I fell on a knee while my other foot slid in the other direction and I ended in a semi-split on the pavement. Two Japanese salary men were not more than two feet away, and as soon as I hit the ground, they turned away from me as fast as they could, almost automatically.
I felt like it was a total insult, but I understand that’s how they show politeness, like pretending they didn’t notice or see. It made the whole thing a little more insulting… So I just stood up, pretended nothing happened and walked to the platform, already missing my train. Upon reaching the office, after apologizing for my lateness and explaining what had happened, my boss confirmed that that was what Japanese people did in such situations. No one helps you up or anything, which I suppose would be even more insulting. So at that point, I didn’t know whether to think it was still that much of a problem.
But as I walked home, careful not to slip yet again, I thought about other times when I trip on things or when I drop things all over the place, or when I walk into things, like posts and such, most Japanese people who know me, would call out a laughing “Daijoubukai? (大丈夫かい？Are you okay?)”, and make me feel like the klutz that I am. Would they have only done the polite ignoring if I were a stranger? Or does the familiarity between me and my Japanese friends change the atmosphere? Is it because I am not an outsider with my friends that the deliberate politeness is unnecessary?
From what I know from my Japanese friends it seems to go from city to city. It seems people in Kansai would be the kind to say “Daijobukai” and people from Tokyo are not. not only Kansai IMHO. One of my friend is from Niigata, and she’s so meddlesome, sometimes to an abusive level, with strangers in the street I can’t possibly think she would ignore someone that fell in front of her even in her hometown or anywhere else.
Again, I’ve to witness any Japanese people in their natural habitat.
Thanks for the comment, simaldeff!
I have heard that people from the Kansai area were more welcoming and warm compared to the people of Kanto. But I’ve never lived in the Kansai area so I have only other people’s words to go by on that.
And probably in more of the bigger cities around the world, people don’t really care what’s going on around them. It was just curious that they did see me, they just chose to ignore. But then in the end, I was content to go along with my business with only a bruised knee and not an accompanying bruised ego, too (by their standards, I guess).
I think I’d rather go through that “polite ignoring” that actually have people stare at me.
Here in the Philippines, people would laugh and (most of the time) point to people who encounter minor accidents like slipping, bumping into something or falling down. I’m guilty of letting a snicker escape one too many times, but I look away before I start laughing.
Hi, coeli!
That sounds really embarrassing… yeah, I’d rather have them ignore me too, then. I’m not sure if all Japanese people laugh about such things afterwards, but some of them also like to poke fun at people who are klutzes. (Usually behind the klutz’ back though…)