Assumptions that gaijin cannot speak Japanese (at all)

[Index]

The only time I can recall being addressed in Japanese at a station was by a older woman standing nearby on a platform at Matsumoto who asked "並んでいますか” in a very normal conversational tone. I was too shocked to say anything but そうです。to which she didn't believe and proceeded to gesture me up a step up for all the three or four of us waiting to be able to line up in proper formation.

I must say I have not had the experience often either. One particularly surprising time was when an older Japanese man asked me for directions (in Japanese) at a packed Takananobaba JR station though. I was so surprised I just stared at him blankly...

[Elizabeth]

I must say I have not had the experience often either. One particularly surprising time was when an older Japanese man asked me for directions (in Japanese) at a packed Takananobaba JR station though. I was so surprised I just stared at him blankly...

Wow, that is bizarre....it reminds me of an instance in a Tokyo restaurant where the check-out guy apparently didn't recognize me as non-Asian (I don't look it at all) and started a conversation by asking whether I was parked in the back lot, something about used cars for sale there, my Japanese was much worse then, but thankfully an incredulous fellow staff soon intervened to let him know who he was talking with, in both English and Japanese....