An Unusual Event

1. So, here’s something you don’t see every day.

2. Imagine sitting at a McDonald’s in the food court of a Westfield’s. At the next table there’s two guys taking a break, and a few tables away, separated by a glass partition, are a group of school kids, dressed in their cooler-than-you best, hanging as school kids do best. As with any group of boys any where in the world, they’re mucking about, throwing stuff at each other, when one miscalculated throw carried a plastic candy box over our way and hits the glass partition. The two guys at the next table takes offence, and marches over to the kids and gives them a good talking to. The kids strut a bit, try to look tough, but obviously copped a verbal hiding. The administors sat back down, resumed their meal.

3. Nothing new here right? What came next was a bit of a surprise.

4. I had been expecting a fight to break out, which would’ve been the most interesting part of my day, but instead the kid responsible ill-fated throw came in to apologise. He ducked his head, said sorry, then went back to join his friends. Meanwhile, I was choking on my double cheeseburger.

5. Japanese people, especially the older generation, bemoan the lack of respect young people (don’t) have, and how dangerous Japan has become. But how nice would it be if kids everywhere else were like that? Or people in general? It’s not that I think all people are bad, or that these kids were especially good, but these are pretty much the bad kids you get around here. Bad kids in Sydney knife and rape and steal.

6. I can’t tell you how nice it is when you can walk down a dark alley in the seediest part of town in the middle of the night and feel perfectly safe.

Comments

  1. Yes, the whole world could take lessons from the Japanese on social mores. I loved visiting Nagoya a couple of months ago and cannot wait to get back to Japan.

    Comment by BWJones — January 8, 2008 @ 2:03 am

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