After reading Thomas Dillon's Aug. 22 column The right word and the right to choose it" and Amy Chavez's "Oscar the Grouch would be homeless here," I was struck by the contrast in tone by two long-term foreigners in Japan.
Dillon's wit and insight bring up the differences while at the same time managing to convey warmth, affection and commonalities between foreigners and the Japanese. His columns tend to leave me feeling good about my life in Japan.
On the other hand, Chavez's Japan Lite column is an annoying weekly lecture on proper gaijin behavior. Her self-appointed role as the gaijin trainer is arrogant to say the least. In the Aug. 22 column, her response to tourists asking her to dispose of some trash was obnoxious. Rather than informing them that garbage needs to be separated, she decides to be "clever" and gives them a hard time. On her high horse, it may not have occurred to her that, simply by asking, the tourists were trying to do the right thing.
Chavez does convey useful information, but does she always have to imply that all foreigners except herself are lunkheads?