Recent holiday to the British Isles, Part 9 - Random Observations in Retrospect

Here I will discuss some random thoughts I've had about my trip to England. They are in no particular order, sorry.

I was surprised to find that the 'gaijin begone' effect followed me. (Gaijin = 'outsider' in Japanese). It is not so surprising to receive strong 'go away' vibes in certain places and from certain people in Japan. It's a cultural thing. Mostly it is a problem of the older generations. You are much more likely to receive hostile looks from an old Granny than a hip young J-girl or J-boy. But the reason the old Granny knows I am a foreign devil is because I look different. I am pale-faced, curly-haired and green-eyed. I stand out. But in England I received the very same vibe in all the non-tourist spots I was in. For example: a Co-op in Giffard Park. Why? I don't stand out in England. My blood is mostly from the British Isles. I brought up the subject with Gillian after the Co-op incident, and she pointed out that because the people there had never seen me before, I was an outsider. The fact that I was wearing orange shoes probably didn't help either. In small towns, I received those looks because I am not a resident. I felt like I was only welcome in cities, not towns. Conclusion: the English cultural concept in the non-tourist parts of England of 'inside' and 'outside' groups is as strong, if not stronger, than in xenophobic Japan.

England is very expensive. Very expensive. A sandwich costs the same in English pounds as it would cost in NZ dollars, but there are about 2.5 dollars to the pound. Therefore a sandwich costs 2.5 times as much in England as NZ. That's horrendous!

Many towns in England, especially the towns and cities I saw from National Express busses between MK and Bath, were dirtier than I remember. Some of them were quite horrid-looking. But Bath is very pretty, just like everyone says, and the towns I saw up north looked nice.

My tolerance to sugar appears to have gone down while I have been in Japan. I bought a Double Decker bar and it took me two days to eat it.

People were either shockingly cool and unhelpful (such as the lady behind the counter at the TI in Bath, who ignored my presence at the counter for two minutes then finally came over, sighed and said 'yes?' in an impatient voice) or they were what my Japan-ified brain interpreted as 'too nice,' as in they smiled too brightly and said things like 'dear' and 'honey,' which I am not used to (or am not used to at the moment; I used to think that was normal).

It seems that I am turning Japanese, because the comments above are mostly the type of comments that a Japanese person would make of the British Isles.