The Salary Man Dilemma

Middle aged business men piss me off, man. If they're not snorting and sneezing and coughing without covering their mouths, they're pushing little old ladies out of the way to get the seats on the train. I feel a lot of them staring at me in expectation if I'm sitting on the train and they're standing.

Its like they expect me to offer them my seat (that I won after winning a sign language barter with a fellow female, 'you take it', 'no, you take it', 'no...") simply because they are male and older. I know that, culturally, Japanese tend to unconditionally respect their elders but there also seems to be the misogynistic undertones of respecting middle-aged men over little ladies.

Forget that. No way. I wasn't brought up in a household that respected men and women equally to throw it away for a germy, inconsiderate suit who refuses to give up his seat for a pregnant woman, for gods sake. I don't care that it's a cultural bias. They can have it and call me a culturally retarded gaijin. I'm glad to be just that!

One of my jobs as an Instructor is to teach Cabin Attendants to give good service in English (serving drinks and food, that is). In the line of duty, I've heard horror stories about the way some men treat them, such as the Cabin Attendants refusing to sell liquor to drunk men during flight and then being made to get down on their knees and apologise in front of other passengers. This f@#$ked up little tradition is supposed to redeem the male passenger's "face" and the girls are too polite and weighed down in their own cultural obligation to refuse.

ANA's policy is still that the passenger is always right. Even if the passenger is heavily tanked and being obnoxious, they are still supposed to serve him or her drinks, although in reality they simply water them down.

Only if the passenger physically endangers other passengers or the airplane, will the co-pilot (a man, of course) be called in to strap him or her down. The Cabin Attendants are not supposed to say, "No" at any time....