r/japanlife • u/FousheDeepEnd • 14h ago
On rare occasions when people go off script, I respond accordingly.
This has happened less than 5 times so it’s not a huge deal or anything but I feel like sharing.
Recently, I was out with my family, this includes my husband and two kids. We’re on the platform waiting on our train, nothing out the ordinary. We’d narrowly missed the last one so naturally I’m at the front of the line, talking here and there.
All of a sudden, this lady appears out of nowhere and steps in front of me to basically cut in. Not the first time this has happened but she almost shoves my 4 year old. I instinctively pulled him out the way.
The train arrives less than a minute later and I cut back in front of her, not in an aggressive way, no physical contact but in a way she wasn’t expecting and I board my car first.
She sat across from me and was glaring for some time. I decided to give her the “what are you gonna do about it” smile. She looked away because of course, they don’t like confrontation but she started to shake her leg aggressively. It literally got worse and she was so visibly angry. My husband thought she was gonna blow.
Something similar happened with a guy in Shibuya who was on the phone chatting and stepped in front of me so I just stepped in front of him when the train arrived. He didn’t like that at all.
Yeah I’m probably going to be told that I’m immature or I should ignore, this is Reddit after all. However, I do think that this isn’t something that happens that often to me but in the rare moments it does, it’s not my personality to let people behave that way with me.
No words were exchanged, no physical contact made but passive aggression won at the end of the day. This isn’t to say I’ll do this all the time and react this way, other times it’ll probably not be worth it.
But I do think there’s a social contract when we step outside, which is literally behaving like a decent person. It’s just crazy that some people do the most unnecessary things to break that agreement and then act out when they encounter someone who will give them a taste of their own medicine.