Your Japanese word of the week is...

"butsukete" which is one of the many conjugated forms of "butsukaru" which means to "run into/crash". Now, "run into" can be used in the same way we use it in English- as meeting someone by chance or literally colliding with someone. The form I'm referring to today is the latter.

Who did I collide with?? I'm not really sure...... I was coming out of the train station, heading to work, just like the hundreds (if not thousands) of other people and to bump into someone isn't abnormal. I mean, I'm pushed into or out of trains on a daily basis, having long since stopped trying to resist 600+lbs of leaning humans.

Nevertheless, as I passed through the gate, I bumped into someone but, not having paid much attention, I kept walking. It wasn't til 10 feet out that I felt someone invading my personal bubble and a quick check over my left shoulder revealed a Japanese man just inches off my arm, glaring at me......

*tap tap*, goes my shoulder...... "Butsukaru yo~ omae-RA", goes my ear..... Now, as a word of caution, if you ever get into a situation when the Japanese starts to fill with rolling R's or otherwise not full sentences, know that them's fightin' words.... Of course, I'm really in no mood to get into any type of confrontation (I never am, let alone before 8am), so I just apologized and kept walking.

Apparently not satisfied with that, he said it again. At this point, still walking, I turned to him and said, in English, "Sorry, I don't speak Japanese". Of course, he wasn't satisfied with that either.

I think he expected me to cower in fear and bow at the waist, repenting for my evil ways at the ticket machine. Either that, or perhaps some reflection of his aggression so that it could escalate into some situation where his could "out-aggress" me....... And, much to his dismay, I did neither. After glaring at me some more, he said "You push (sic) me."

Now this guy was, at most, the same height as me, though he puffed out his torso like a blowfish and tried to lean in to intimidate me. I counter with a blank and slightly quizzical look, "Oh... sorry about that."

"You really think so?", said the glaring blowfish.

"....... uhh yes, I really think I'm sorry......??", offered the blank face.

"You really no speak Japanese?"

"No....... I'm from Canada", saying it as if it was the world's greatest excuse.......

"You push me."

"Really, sorry about that...... there's just so many people moving everywhere that sometimes it's hard not to run into someone."

At this point, he started to look a touch confused and, sensing there was little else he could say to someone who wasn't offering any type of response back, told me to be more careful and huffed off some other way.

Now this isn't something that happens all the time and certainly it's one of the few times it's happened to me and the first time in Japan. But it did get me thinking about how being non-confrontational doesn't require a person to immediately admit wrong-doing or some other kind of inferiority nor does it require forcing the other person down with extra aggression (which will almost never work).

Oddly, having spent that entire conversation looking at him, I can't remember his face so if I see him again tomorrow, I can't be sure this won't happen again........... but at least then my quizzical look will be genuine haha.......

In other news, the next Shiramizu Intern, Carl Jorgeson, has arrived. He's spending a year here doing what I did and, this time around, his fiance's come with him. Not officially the intern, everyone's happy Amy's here and she'll soon find work on her own and the two of them will get to experience Japan for themselves.

So welcome, and hopefully you won't have to defuse any situations like this in your year here! haha