The Beginning of the Last Day

I bet you’re chuckling that a silly person like me can spend a single day actually doing something and a whole week writing about it. Go ahead, I chuckle about that myself.

The Cap’n and I had breakfast together at the hotel buffet on our last morning. I finally got my favorite Hawaiian meal - fresh pineapple and bacon. With a couple of eggs on the side. And sausage. This is all legal on my low carb diet, and I planned the calories into my day.


Breakfast on the patio was a great place to observe people.

I told you a few days ago I had some comments about the Japanese tourists, and I told you how uncomfortable it was at Pearl Harbor. Now you’ll hear the REST of the story.

I love the Japanese tourists. I just finished reading The Tipping Point, and I’ve decided that because there are as many Japanese tourists in Hawaii as there are US mainland tourists, the place maintains a delicate balance. Because of the Japanese tourists, there is a civility that one doesn’t find in San Francisco, for example. A lot of the shopkeepers in Hawaii seem to be Japanese immigrants. After dealing with them, I found myself wishing they were working in Walmart and Home Depot at home. What a treat to have a knowledgeable, friendly, polite person behind the counter. Language is superfluous when the service is so masterful. I felt privileged to be their customer.

I have American friends of Japanese descent, I have friends whose parents came from China and friends whose parents came from Mexico, and relatives who are half Korean. But I’ll tell you what, there’s not much difference between any of us who were born here. With so many Japanese tourists to observe, this is what I saw: there is a difference in demeanor and facial expressions. I’m sure lots of you who have traveled afar already know these things and could detail the differences by country.

The Japanese tourists take measured steps. They maintain a slight space between themselves, which strangely allows them to fit more people in a small space. There is little facial expression, even on the young people whose hair and clothes are very expressive. They’re certainly not dull, just very self-contained.

US mainlanders sprawl. We amble along like we own the sidewalk, and people have to go around us. Sometimes it’s a contest to see who is going to defer, and if someone else has to go around you, you get a look of disgust from them. When we talk, half our communication is iby facial expression. I believe I was able to discern US Japanese from “real” Japanese at a distance just by watching them talk to each other. The real Japanese didn’t have our rubber faces and animated eyebrows. We must look like clowns to them.

There’s so much we all take for granted and assume that our way is the right way. Being a tourist along with people from other cultures is a great way to learn to appreciate the differences.