Discovering the Beginning of my Cultural Awkwardness

This was our last afternoon of freedom before our intense two weeks of teacher's training kicked-off. We all decided to bust out our poor maps and hunt down the Internet cafe in our area. We gabbed away like a bunch of clucking hens and had many stares directed our way. The stares, that can get on my nerves, seemed to be less noticeable, when with a group of people, I suppose you don't know exactly who they are looking at or are to consumed in conversation to care. It was a much nicer experience than my trek alone trying to find this place.

We arrived at the closest station but couldn't tell from our joke-of-a-map, where to go from there. We walked around aimlessly for several minutes-but we were all determined to find this place! There was a young, stylish Japanese woman leaning against the wall, fiddling with her cell phone. I huddled with the girls to have a pep talk about approaching strangers and attempting to ask where the Internet cafe was. I was the one who drew the short straw, so stood up straight, took a deep breath, recited the Japanese I would use to ask and walked up to her. She looked content gazing at her phone, but when she looked up and saw a sweaty foreigner staring at her, her face drooped. "Sumimasen, Interneto doko des ka?" (Excuse me where is the Internet?) I spoke to her softly to appear less scary. At lightning speed she stared rambling off Japanese words, that I didn't know and then it was my turn for my face to droop. "Wakarimasen," "Wakarimasen" (I don't understand), I repeated. I showed her my map, thinking that may help. She glanced at it nervously and obviously didn't know where it was, but was too polite to say she didn't know.

This was one of my first experiences for asking for directions and experiencing the relentless attempts for the Japanese to help, even if they don't know what you need help with. It was getting very uncomfortable about five minutes in and she stared awkwardly at the map fidgeting with it. I couldn't think of the word to tell her, "Don't worry about it" or "I'll ask someone else" (which I was scared at doing now). The girls were still standing where I left them and looked pitifully onward at me. I didn't want to snatch the map away from her and she kept looking up and around like she had might have the answer. I decided I would have to be the impolite one to stop this charade. I smiled at her and gently pulled the map away from her and repeated "Arigato" (Thank you) several times while bowing and walking away. She was undoubtedly relieved that I had left and taken the map away. I returned to the girls wide-eyed and didn't have to say much for them to grasp the awkwardness of the situation. It wasn't just a language barrier issue, there were clearly some cultural faux pas in Japan about saying you couldn't help someone, even if you have no idea and really couldn't be of any help.