This morning, while walking towards Tachikawa Station with a suitcase, a middle aged Japanese guy that was strolling in front of me while looking at his phone suddenly stopped walking (which made me step to the right side to avoid hitting him) turned his head to face me (probably because he could hear me with the suitcase), looked at me, then started insulting me (kept repeating ‘omae kimochiwarui’, and ‘koitsu kimochi-warui na’ and some other stuff as well) with an agitated and aggressive look on his face. I was about to confront him but he just kept getting louder so I just glared into his soul, ignored him and went my way. Has anyone experienced something like this or am I really that disgusting lol?
Just for reference, I am an asian guy, around 181cm tall with a buff build. Many of my Japanese friends have said I looked big and macho.. so maybe it was to do with my appearance?
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It’s not you it’s him.
DO NOT confront people. You’ll be wasting your time, and won’t achieve anything besides maybe putting you in danger or in a precarious situation
He sounds mentally ill to me. Best thing to do is keep walking. Sometimes mentally ill people start yelling stuff like this on the train. People just don’t make eye contact.
It was probably just some random crazy person. You did the right thing by ignoring him and moving on.
Haha middle aged ossan are the worst. I had a chap who looked like a decrepit Matt Groening try to trip me after I entered a ticket gate before him (again, smartphone walker).
The pile of good things ub your life is surely higher than his so just enjoy and move on.
Not sure if those phrases were meant to be offensive. Might want to ask another Japanese speaking person what those meant.
At first I thought the dude might be mentally ill, but then you mentioned you were wearing a mankini…
Live and let live. Walk away and don’t care. Forget it immediately
Insult him back /ignore it and move on.
I wonder if his indignation is because you didn’t collide with him. He was trying to start something, possibly a scam. “Pay up, or I’ll set the cops on you.”
Back to the game after opening the borders; I’m only observing xenophobia and aggressiveness on the rise
Immediately take off your shirt and start the onegai muscle dance.
Don’t trade insults or act aggressively. Throw them off guard and agree with them. Act like it’s a compliment and continue on your way. “Hai. Arigato gozaimasu. Ryoukai desu.” Just give them the opposite of what the were trying to provoke and leave them befuddled.
Ignore. Good chance he’s a mentally unstable person.
We need photos for a more scientific look at this incident
Perhaps a case of ‘Salaryman Syndrome.’
That’s when overworked and emotionally repressed middle aged office workers will vent their frustrations on innocents. Near where I used to live in Kawasaki, there was an alley where an older guy would just wait around to shoulder check high school girls on their way home from school.
A few times I’ve also had salarymen pretend to be on their phones while intentionally veering into me. They then stop and stare, asserting themselves in hope of an apology.
Just a couple weeks ago, me and my girlfriend were on the train and the woman sitting next to her was throwing elbows. She pulled out her phone and did these big exaggerated movements when typing, that meant her elbow was hammering into my girlfriend’s ribs over and over. After a bit of glaring, she suddenly remembered she had thumbs.
The best thing to do is laugh it off in front of them. I assume they pull that sort of thing because they feel belittled and humiliated at work, so just give them more of that (rather than the satisfaction of a confrontation).
Look, in the most respectful way possible, I don’t see the point of this post. This could happen anywhere. The particulars aren’t even important. There are weird aggressive people in every city on this planet.
Seriously is this /japanlife or /mentalhealth?
WTF do your issues with people at stations have to do with living in Japan?
What were you wearing?
He probably just shouted exactly the same thing to a cat a few minutes before. Sounds like one of Tokyo’s many unhinged denizens
A black man yelled at me in New York once… what do?
Nah he’s just being japanese
They leave you alone if you start recording with your phone
Conbini was probably out of his favorite flavor of StrongZero. Don’t take it personally
I’m tempted to call bullshit on this post.
OP, what you doing walking around with a suitcase today?
Did you spit in his face? If someone wants to call me disgusting they’d better be prepared for disgusting. Not genuine advice since who knows where the police are hiding but sometimes these types need to get what is coming to them. I’m sorry this happened to you and I wish this was the first case of this 🙁
Some guy was wandering around my train car this morning, muttering lots of stuff.
No one engaged him, and we all emerged un-stabbed.
Certainly a mod from r/japan, don’t bother…
I commute through Tachikawa when I actually need to get to the chuo line. Most people are great but, as with anywhere, there are mentally ill and/or generally pissed-off people around.
He doesn’t care about your build, boy.
He’s just psycho lol.
Don’t confront nobody, you lay one finger on that guy, and it’s sayounara for you. Back to the West Coast of the States for you.
You’ll meet a few nuts every few years if you’re consistently commuting on foot.
I once thought there was an actress rehearsing her lines on the train, turns out she was just a crazy person, and I’d only made that excuse for her because she was pretty. She’d say the lines with such passion, and intensity. Like she was living them.
The reaction of the gallery clued me in.
I was in the ”everything about Japan is great” phase… Everybody was an idol, and otaku, and weabooo, an actress. Everybody was so cool!
Eh, I just throw a “dame kuso yaro” and flip them off when they act like that.
Yeah there are crazy people everywhere
Ever been to a large American city? Full of weird, crazy, racist people