island cosmopolitanism

Walking in a busy tourist area of Kyoto last weekend, Whitebait is enthusiastically invited by a fellow tourist (middle-aged Japanese man) to try  a sample dish  outside of a  shop we are passing. Whitebait politely names it and declines after recognising it as the not particularly appetising  ika no shiokara  he had earlier eaten when out last month with some  accquaintances (Japanese medics who also insisted we try the dish without knowing what it was). The fellow tourist heads off looking slightly miffed that he has been caught out trying on something not so polite in respect of a dish that is by no means that popular among Japanese themselves.

Whitebait meets his language buddy who tells him she is desparately struggling to learn the art of origami before her next trip to Australia - everyone there insistently asks her if she can fold paper in the Japanese way. She prefers going out and listening to hard rock bands and talking to her younger friends who defiantly work part-time and devote the rest of their lives to the music scene..
She also tells Whitebait that  she is slightly worried about going through immigration (on a standard tourist visa) as she received a real grilling last time.  'How come your English is so good'?

A German architect (resident in Japan for five or more years) tells of his frustration at still being continually told 'wow, you can use chopsticks'.