Cycling to work banned

In article wLQRb.175913$na.286144@attbi_s04,
Claire Petersky wrote:
"Trent Piepho" wrote in message
...
In article Cz9Rb.151780$I06.1533183@attbi_s01,
Claire Petersky wrote:

I would suggest never living in Japan, where you will find people
butting
into your business and being anal repressives, on a daily basis.

Unlike Seattle, you can wear any kind of hat you want on a bicycle in
Japan.

You were saying something about people butting into other's business?

I don't do helmet wars.

But your above comment convinces me you've never lived in Japan.

I've been stopped by police multiple times solely for what I was wearing.
Can
anyone living in Japan say the same thing?

How many times have ordinary people stopped you and criticized you for what
you were wearing?

More often than the police.

However, there is a significant difference between nosy busybodies complaining
of your choice of dress from their cars, and a nosy busybodies on the county
council using police power to force their fashion style on you.

There is plenty of social pressure to fit in and wear what people think you
should wear here in King county, it's not a trait unique to Japan. Maybe you
just fit in better here than in Japan?

(Trent Piepho) wrote in
:

However, there is a significant difference between nosy busybodies
complaining of your choice of dress from their cars, and a nosy
busybodies on the county council using police power to force their
fashion style on you.

There is plenty of social pressure to fit in and wear what people
think you should wear here in King county, it's not a trait unique to
Japan. Maybe you just fit in better here than in Japan?


What exactly are you wearing that causes such a reaction in King County?

Do they actually have laws there that make it illegal?

Inquiring minds want to know! :-)

"Claire Petersky" wrote in message
news:wLQRb.175913$na.286144@attbi_s04...
How many times have ordinary people stopped you and criticized you for
what
you were wearing?

In Japan? Never.

In Japanese, the word for being wrong, and the word for being different is
the same. If I'd say, "Trent's opinion is different from mine", and
"Trent's
opinion is wrong, and I'm right", I'd use the same word in both cases. The
attitude that different equals wrong permeates the entire culture. You
don't
need police to enforce this. Society does it for you.

Thanks for the language lesson.

You know something else I can't stand about the Japanese? They all take
imperfect even even plain wrong information about other cultures, and apply
it accross the board to everybody from that culture.

GAWD, I hate that!

I'd be naked in the public bath and my
neighbors would let me know I was too hairy.

This is almost interesting. Are you a man or a woman?

I could go on and on.

Please do! It's all quite fascinating.

--
Regards,
Ryan Ginstrom

"Claire Petersky" wrote in message news:
(...)
How many times have ordinary people stopped you and criticized you for what
you were wearing?

In Japanese, the word for being wrong, and the word for being different is
the same. If I'd say, "Trent's opinion is different from mine", and "Trent's
opinion is wrong, and I'm right", I'd use the same word in both cases. The
attitude that different equals wrong permeates the entire culture. You don't
need police to enforce this. Society does it for you.

Your opinion is completely different from mine.

Rafael Caetano

"Tony Raven" wrote in message ...
Michael Cash wrote:

I don't give a **** if the expression has been adopted into Japanese
culture or not. Based on personal empirical observations over the
course of three visits to Japan, I'm telling you that I have seen more
squeaky wheels greased than I have seen protruding nails hammered
down.

Ah the instant expert


Thanks for the link, but the day I need the observations of some
pointy-headed academic warming a chair at the international studies
department of some jerkwater US university in order to form an opinion
about whether the squeaky wheel getting the grease metaphor has
supplanted the nail being hammered down metaphor I'll just pack up my
carpetbag and be moving along.

Since you've already made your mind up it I'll leave you to your quaint views.
Good luck with whatever business you are doing there.

He hammers down protruding bikers.

Rafael Caetano

On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 15:42:20 GMT, "Claire Petersky"
posted the following:

Stuff people would never criticize you for in Seattle were constant targets
in Japan. What I hung up on my laundry line, when I took out my garbage, who
my friends were, and when they came to visit. Clothes? Man, people let me
know all the time if what I was wearing was out of line. People let me know
that I was out of line about things I had no control over. I was too tall to
be acceptable to the rest of society. I'd be naked in the public bath and my
neighbors would let me know I was too hairy. It seemed the whole concept of
"just leave me alone" was completely unknown. I could go on and on.

I don't encounter this all that much, but last week I was surprised
that some people who came over to my house launched into a very
detailed critique of the blankets on my bed and how they would result
in me getting a cold (i.e. I use an electric blanket, I use sheets, I
have too many blankets).

-CHris