Funny how social norms develop. Here in Japan there are so many fine tripwires for us gaijin to stumble over. I was often severely admonished, for example, by my Japanese ex-wife for sneezing loudly, a simple natural reflex action, as if I were deliberately attemting to be rude, like induced belching or farting. Another Japanese friend told me that my sneezing was a subconscious attempt to draw attention to myself, as I am naturally somewhat shy.
Eating techniques are particularly puzzling - the polite way to hold one's rice bowl, where to place one's chopsticks etc. If one slurped one's miso soup it would be considered indecorous. On the other hand, I stopped off for a quick bowl of noodles at the cheap and cheerful cafe at the station last night, where an unbelievable racket was going on all around me as four men slurped their udon down. Like I was in candid camera, or the Loudest Noodle Slurping Contest 2008. Reminded me of dogs howling across the valley, winding each other up, determined not to be drowned out by the others. If I hadn't been so hungry I might have walked out. Quite off-putting.
Robert Louis Stevenson, his wife Fanny, and friends, 1889, South Pacific.
