Went to a coffee shop in Ebisu today to grab an iced coffee while waiting for a friend. Walk in, lady behind the counter says a big “Hello” to me. I’ve been here 15 years and my immediate reaction was to flex my -not nearly as good as it should be for 15 years- Japanese. Instead I decided to just say “hello” back and pretend I was a tourist, we had a chat in her broken English, she seemed happy, I was happy.
So question for everyone who lives here – anyone ever take the “get treated like a tourist act like a tourist” approach? I’ve gone through all sorts of mental states living here, naturally you want to get treated like a resident, but I think there’s probably some therapeutic value to just letting it go every now and then.
Anyways, go ahead guys tear this apart.
by cid386