ecchi, you say?

One of the few things that friends have cautioned me before going to Japan was Japanese men. Those who advised me to be careful all mentioned about how hamsap/horny/hentai they are. Hey, they all start with the letter H! "Ecchi", by the way, which is the pronunciation of the letter H in Japanese, is also known as indecent and lewd.

I have never personally encountered any of those during my stay both in Niigata and Tokyo, much to the surprise of Stephen who's personally disgusted with the porn they read on trains. However, I am more put off by the male dominance mentality that is overall still prevalent in modern Japan.

To be fair, most are from the older generation whereas the younger ones, having been exposed to Western and outside culture do not quite follow in the footsteps of their fathers and those before them. Those who show no signs of these are they who have returned from overseas or have been brought up out of Japan, and I found them more relateable, if there is such a word. But that will be a story for another time.

This picture was taken during one of my cycling trips in Iidabashi this spring. I was not trying to follow them nor eavesdrop to find out what was the relationship between this more senior looking man and the young lady walking alongside him.

So happened that it was such a beautiful weather to take a leisurely ride and I'm sure they would have made way for me had I sounded the bell of my bicycle.

I was rather intrigued because I actually pitied the grrl as she had to carry a bag each on both arms, plus an additional paperbag on the left, in a way that can only be done in a country as safe as Japan. If this was in Malaysia, someone would have helped himself to the dangling temptations, leaving the poor victim in tears. Or to be more positive, leaving the victim running after the thief for taking what is not his.

Anyways, so she was walking with both arms outstretched and had to turn diagonally to face the man, all these while walking and talking. I could see that this took some amount of effort on her side. This man, having no baggage of his own was for the most time, walking facing forwards, tilting his side slightly to her direction in, say, 1% of the time she gave her fullest attention to him.

While trying to balance myself on the bicycle and taking the picture at the same time, I could not help but wonder if it occured to the man that he could at least help or offer to lighten her burden. But of course, maybe he did and she declined. Perhaps she just wanted to tone her arms and perfect her balancing skills and they weren't going to be walking together to the same direction in the first place.

Update 5 Nov : To avoid misunderstanding, this is just an observation into one stereotype of the Japanese men, and not a blanket statement of the overall population :)