How about
 

Strange for foreigners but not looked upon highly in Japan:

* Walking and eating. Or more so eating on the go. This may be old fashioned now.
(driving and eating of course is dangerous, but some people in America do it).

* Definitely the Japanese public is a little more strict on where and when to eat. I.e. not eating on a commuter train (even when nearly empty). Long distance non-commuter trains with seats... okay of course...

Not reallying slaughtering the meal... but worth mentioning..

Well a lot of us Americans eat why driving & i don't agree with it but you can't stop them from doing it i on the outher hand won't do it because i don't feel like dieing.

yea i know what you mean, i always thought it was ferrenggggggg

but thats probably just my ears :)

i dunno if its just me, but for some reason i dislike fereng/falang more than gaijin, (and its "polite" derivitive).

something about the word and the way it is often said is (to me) a bit 'attacking', know what i mean?

- i have had some run ins with people trying to be rascist to me in asia.
Its pure comedy.
(after all we have larger genitalia, more powerfull militaries [not china though], and at some point we (europeans) probably owned your country - and could again if we wanted to - etc. )

Though I have found that responding like this will often inflame the situation (though that can be fun)
pointing out something like,
"i can understand how you feel, in europe we used to feel the same way, but don't worry you will always be welcome, as we have put such primitive thoughts to rest"


Also if you have a well conected fixer or well conected contact it can have very funny outcomes.

all in all though, and bringin it back to japan.

Is still think its a bit sad that a country that is supposed to be so 'Advanced' has such a backwards social view on race, nationality, and immigration.
its a true stain on an otherwise wonderfull and rich culture.

thats why i make a point of getting a bit "offended" when people call me gaijin, because if everyone just accepts it there is no chance of change.

also if someone as you said tenchu, calls me gaijin when they know my name/where i am from... they will simply be reffered to as Nip.

simples

That reminds me at Kashihara Nara when an old geezer rode his bike past me and hazed the word "Gaijin".

Another occassion was at Kansai airport as the customs wonker decided to ask about drugs and called me "gaijin san".

My Japanese wife (no longer) interjected with the corrextion to him and pronouced "Gai koko jin" of which he then apologised.

My thinks it is a very rude word:vsign:

one that i find works well in those "official" situations...

if i am adressed as gaijin, i completely blank that person, everything they say and do until i am addressed in english with
"excuse me sir..."

though this may not be the fastest way to get through customs :p

The official spelling is "farang". However I find this a bit funny; Thai people cannot say "R", so howcome it is "farang"? They say "L" in the place of any "R".

I know exactley what you mean. If people call me "farang" to my face, they'll likely hear me call them a "nigger" back. But the word itself is not a crime. It's just poor manners to refer to a person directly in such a broad manner. However, I've no problem with saying something like, "A lot of falang come to Thailand to learn Muay Thai".
Because this simply means, "A lot of white foreigners come to Thailand to learn Muay Thai".
It's okay because you're not reffering to a person directly to their face. You are generalizing in saying many white people from many different countries come to Thailand for this. This is a true thing, and is not offensive. It, and "gaijin", only become rude when people start lazy shit talking to you calling you these things instead of asking your name or anything.

I know darn well, in Australia, it's bloody rude to talk to an Asian or such and just keep reffering to them as "the Asian" when you should be simply asking their name.

However, you have to understand a lot of these countries do not understand this. They do not realize the form of social exclusion put forward in saying there is "us and them; Japanese/Thai and gaijin/falang" is a pretty unwelcoming thing to say that basically means you don't belong in their circle. Tell them where to go if someone does it.

Penis size? This reminds me of a funny conversation...

I was waiting in the huge line outside the Thai embassy in Vientianne, Lao whilst doing a visa run. There were two other big white guys there with me (and I'm a little huge myself, being 186cm and 105 kilo). There was also a rather scrawny American there.

We were doing the usual chat that people do whilst waiting for a Thai visa at the Thai embassy; bad mouthing Thailand and talking shit about their culture, moarchy and politics. We got onto the subject of being bigger than Thais somehow.

The scrawny American, who was only the size of an average Thai, started telling a funny story about how the bar girls in Patong reffer to white guys as qwai (buffalo). Citing, they are big and have big penis, but very small brain. All of a sudden, it went quiet, and all eyes fell on the scrawny man talking about small Asians who were not bigger than himself, trying to piggy back on the achievements of his fellow race where he himself had failed.

As for their backwards views; I think the problem is language. Countries that do not speak English are less exposed to the external world, and thus feel it's a lot bigger than it really is.

It's a lot easier to brand someone as a "gaijin/falang" when you think every country does it. They havn't realized that outside their own country is not just a collection of other independant nations, but it's an international community.

We can get as pissed off as we like and tell them over and over that having black hair/eyes/nipples/genitals means they're technically more black than they are white, regardless of how many chemicals they put on their skin and how much they fear the sun in order to prevent what they'd reffer to as "negrosis"; an extremely hostile disease. However, all they really need is for someone to switch on the BBC channel and say "Here, take a look, this is the big wide world". You know, kind of like holding their hand as they step out the door, coz their too scared to do it themselves...

Just think of that next time they call you "gaijin", and remeber that perhaps all they need is a good lecture on basic manners.

Why would you want to be addressed in English in Japan? I can understand not wanting to be called "gaijin", but this is like a Japanese person being expected to be addressed in Japanese when in Australia. It's dumb.

call me outlander, and i will be the auslander, and force you (mr official) to struggle with your english, and when you do i will take great pleasure in correcting your grammar, and look at you and talk to you like your retarded just because you can't speak my language as well as me.

or sometimes i give them that look that the rural french give you if you dare to speak thier language with anything other than perfect accent. (even though i am insisting that they address me in english)

also it can be usefull, when you are white, and in another country and get people to talk english to you, they automatically asume you dont understand the local lingo

as i said though, not the quickest way to get through customs :p

No one is trolling.

Fair enough. So what you're saying is, if someone assumes you're an "outsider" (gaijin) by speaking to you in English, then you like to play as though you really are a foreigner who has no idea.

This is okay, so long as when someone talks to you properly in Japanese you reply respectfully and in Japanese. If you don't speak the language, ask them politely if they speak English.

I can relate to this I suppose; when people assume because I'm white I can speak English, I like to reply in Russian and pretend I have no idea how to speak English beyond "Me not speak English" in a thick Russian accent... you should try that one.