A former diplomatic colleague of mine was posted to Japan for a number of years. His wife speaks nearly flawless Japanese having lived in the country for a number of years and was a major asset to him. But she encountered some funny situations, mostly arising from the general xenophobia which Japanese tend to exhibit.
One day after they had moved into their new apartment in Shibuya-ku, the lady of the house went grocery shopping in the local shops. When she went into one shop, the proprietoress and a female customer began talking about her, in Japanese of course. "She's a bit fat". "She's got good clothes". "Don't like the way her hair is done". That kind of thing.
She asked for whatever it was she wanted in accentless and perfect Japanese. Dead silence for a moment. Then the proprietoress' forehead nearly smacked into the counter as she bowed, and the customer exited out of the door quickly, they were that embarrassed. Loss of face, you know ...
The long and short of it was that Dot never paid full price for anything in that shop again!
