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I have this interesting habit of walking around trying to pick up young girls. Not that it works that good, but it is fun to do. That is how I met my wife in the first place. I met her on West 4th Street subway station, in NYC. I just came over to her and said, “Nice Bag!” So we went from there. Now living in Japan it is a bit harder to do than in New York City, but I still attempt to try my luck, just for fun.

Recently I went to Mio, a fashion mall building in Tenoji, Osaka Japan. The place has many clothing shops and many young sexy girls work at the shops as well as come shopping there. My usual self, I strolled around from shop to shop trying to start a conversation with a sales girl. They like to talk to westerners but are a bit shy when approached. It does not bother me, because I am not shy at all. I usually get an email address and a phone number, but find it hard to get anything going past that.

As I came up to the second floor of the 11 floors building I bumped into a few cute High School girls. They were all giggly and friendly with me, trying to practice their broken English. I knew I was not getting some from them, but was game, just for fun. I joked around with them, not that they understood my jokes, but they would laugh when I would say, “American Joke!” at the end of the Joke! That is the sort of weird sense of humor they have in Japan. They do not understand the joke but tend to laugh when you say, “American Joke!” At the end of our tryst, I wanted to get a little memory of the meet and pulled out my mobile phone to snap their picture. They smiled with a V sign! I wanted to be included in the picture, but they vehemently objected and pulled a way as soon as I brought my face next to theirs. Again, they asked me to take their picture only. I said no, I wanted a picture with all of us together. They would not agree, so I walked away!

As I went up the escalator to the third floor, I noticed a building’s security guard. First, I payed him no mind and continued strolling into different shops looking to strike a conversation with a nice girl. As I went from shop to shop I noticed the guy, ever so gently, on my back, following me. I took the escalator to the 4th floor and stopped right as I got off the steps, waiting to see if the private Pig comes around. Lo and behold, the Dick showed up like a bad nickel. I approached the excuse for a man, and said to him, “Why are you following me?” The Ass Wipe replied, “I am not following you!” I turned way in discuss and went about my business. My got feeling told me the guard was stalking me, but there was nothing I can do! I was in their building. I thought to myself, “What an intrusion of privacy!”

I continued walking around, slowly going up from floor to floor, but the Buzzkill took the fun out of the game. As I came up to the 8th floor, I decided to visit a friend who had an accessory shop there. I use to have an import company and manufactured, imported and distributed fashion accessories. I came into the shop and started chatting with a manger that I use to make business with some years back. This company had a few stores and the employees remembered me pretty well, because my company use to sell a lot to their company. The manager was very friendly with me, and we reminisced and talked about how well the business use to be and how it sucked now. All of a sudden, 5 or 6 security guards surrounded the store staring at me with protruding eyes, ready to come down for the kill. At that point I knew something had to be done! I came out of the store, and in indignation protested, “What do you want!” The manager came out to help me out. We were all talking in Japanese, which I knew very well after living in Japan for 18 years. I said to the guards that I am visiting my old customer and asked them why are they following me from store to store. They replied that they are not following me. I went back to the store, but the idiots just kept standing there and would not go away. I came out again and said, “What do you want?” Finally one guard told me that some customers complained to the guards that I asked them for money. I said, “What The Fuck!” and showed them a 1,000 usd that I had in my wallet. I said to them, “Look I have fucken money and just visiting a friend! I use to make big business with this company and have no reason to walk around begging money from people.” My manager friend concurred and told them not to worry, that we are just talking. At that point they relented and walked away.

I was angry and a bit ashamed in front of my friend. I knew Japanese people are a bit scared of foreigners but this was total paranoia! I decided to call it a day and said goodbye to my friend. As I was walking out of the building, I noticed a couple of westerners greeting customers at the door to the store. I found it a bit ironic, being that the mall was so paranoid with foreigners but had westerners working as greeters, welcoming Japanese customers. I told the two employees what had just happened to me. They kind of laughed at the accident and said it is nothing new, that the store’s policy is to follow all foreigners until they leave the store. I said, “Dudes, you got to be Shitting me!” They replied, “No, it is the truth!” I am like Fuck, these people are weired. So this shit was never about me, but they stalked me just because I am a Gaijin!

I was really mad at that point. I have been living in Japan for 18 years and I am being seen as a criminal by the Japanese society. Suddenly I saw this guy standing around with the mall’s id card hanging of his neck! I went over to talk to him, to raise a complaint about my ordeal. He turned out to be the manager of the mall. We went upstairs to the offices to have a civil discussion. I explained to the mall’s manager what had just happened. I told him I was very upset and demanded an apology. I said to him that the store has no right to follow foreigners around, just because they are afraid of them. He said that the store does not have a policy like that, and that he will call the security guards supervisor to find out what really happened. The security guards supervisor came over and told me, that the reason that the guards followed me was because the girls that I met on the second floor, the girls whose picture I did not take, complained that I asked them for money. I was really ticked at the time. I said, “Where are the girls? I want them to say that to my face!” The guard replied, “They complained and left the store.” I said, “Based on a story of High School girls you going to follow a customer around the store? Why didn’t you just ask me and the girls to come over to your office and find out what really happened, instead of following me around like a criminal?” At that point the guy was speechless. He knew the girls were bullshitting, otherwise I would have been brought to the security office, but he still had his man follow me around! I said to him that his man embarrassed me in front of my customer and they did not even have proof that I did something wrong. He started telling me that it is his job to protect the mall. I said, “Protect the mall? How about my human rights! Don’t you have respect for people, or you just believe some teenagers wild story, just because they are Japanese and the other person is a foreigner?” I named my customer’s company and a few other big people in the industry! At that point they got scared and started apologizing to me. He and the mall manager said to me that next time someone complains they will investigate and talk to the parties involved before jumping to conclusions.

In Japan quite a few young women play this game blaming males for all kind of weired things, especially Chikan! Even though Chikan - sexually groping of a woman in public places - does happen, very often it has evolved to some sort of fantasy for attention by Japanese women. I am glad the mischievous girls did not blame me for that. Looks like the young girls were just angry that I did not take their picture, thinking a westerner did not think them attractive, and they retaliated with a little long tale. No harm done, teenagers like to play. But security guards at that mall really need to get their shit together and stop being paranoid about foreigners!

Even though, Japan as a whole has opened up to western culture adopting food, fashion, and music, Japanese people overall still feel uncomfortable around western people. They are like little children. They are interested in western people but scared at the same time. Sometime Japanese women send wrong signals to western men. They act like they are interested in a man, but they are really just interested in the culture and the English language. One must be aware of this when coming to Japan. Still my beef is not really with the Japanese society and how they are fearful of westerners, while intrigued by the culture.

My real concern is how the people of whole world have become distrustful of each other. Living in New York City in the 80’s people were very free and open minded. It was easy to meet someone on the street or in a coffee shop and strike a conversation with them and even take things to a higher level. But as the 90’s rolled around people became kind of cold. As I walked down the street people would avoid looking at each other, as if everyone was behind some protective barrier. After 9/11 things gotten even worse. Everyone is paranoid about everyone. This is not only in United States but all over the world. On the Internet we feel comfortable, chat, and socialize with each other, but in person we get defensive and bring up the Fire Wall!