A Few Odd Things Happened Today

I went to the city today. I walked into the electronics store and went to the cell-phone area, to see if they could charge my phone. As I crossed the floor, one of the employees shouted DEKKAI!! loud enough for everyone around to turn and stare. (Dekkai basically means "big.")

I gave her an odd look for a few seconds, long enough for her to realize that I had heard her (how could I not?) and what was more, I understood her. Once she got that, she came over to me and asked how tall I was. We had a brief, polite conversation.

I've been given to understand that things like this are not really considered rude in Japanese society. It's still very surprising/somewhat annoying when it happens, though.

Later on in the evening, I was walking across the street, conversing with a friend on my cellphone. A young woman passed me, overheard me, stopped, turned, and stared at me. I was startled enough to stop as well. After a few seconds, she asked, Gaijin? ("Are you a foreigner?")

I responded without thinking, Hai, so desu. This only served to further confuse her, and she turned to the friend she was with and began chattering at high speed, continuing to cross the street, while I headed over to the tram stop.

Now, this one confused me as well. Unless I look a lot more like a Nihonjin than I used to -- and I think that the first part of this post would belie that -- I can't think why she'd be surprised to hear me speaking English there. I'm far from the only foreigner in town, hell, I wasn't even the only foreigner crossing the street at that point! (Lots of English speakers in the city tonight. I don't know why)

All in all, kind of a surreal day today.