Should all Japanese directly address foreigners in Japanese ?

[Maciamo]

I think the people living in the "shitamachi" area are more tolerant and confident of themselves, regardless of English skill level, and will speak to a foreigner in Japanese regardless of whether the person understands them or not.

Well, I live in Tokyo's shitamachi (so East Tokyo), and that is where I have had the most problems with people making gestures and feigning not to understand (they were almost all above 50 years old, though, but there are lots of older people in shitamachi). But it's true that it is also mostly in shitamachi that some yakuza-looking guys start shouting strange things when I quietly walk in the street (very un-Japanese !), although that only happened 3 times in 3 years.