Joe,

> I thought she was 20 years old. She kind of > stuttered and stumbled a bit and told me that > most people thought she looked 19. I told her I > had just looked at her palm not her face. I > asked her how old she was and she said 21. I > think that was the last thing she said to me > for the rest of the evening.

Not sure what to conclude from this. If you hadn't explicitly mentioned that it was the girlfriend of a Japanese guy I would have guessed that she wasn't exactly 21 either...

By the way, are you out there now?

> As for "gaijin privileges", it refers people > who choose to ignore polite social norms > because they know that, as foreigners, no one > will call them on their anti-social behavior.

Ah yes, and they continue to believe that learning Japanese will help them to be cool. And they are regarded as such until the point where they get sucked into the grinder.

> In regards to your responses to my list, the > problem with avoiding other gaijin is that they > can often be great resources.

I would agree with you when we consider the long run. For me, I am usually in Asian countries for only a few weeks and as such I am only interested in meeting Russians because they tell me exactly how much partying the social fabric of any region can withstand and where to find cheap and large vodka deposits.

Its getting harder to come up with new stuff. I feel we have still to grasp the influence of J-pop and karaoke on JCG's. We also haven't said anything about the food yet... give me a hand here..