Using the Gaijin Smash!
In the latest post on GaijinSmash.net, a blog about the experiences of an American English teacher in Japan, blogger Azrael writes about a case in which he uses the gaijin smash. The gaijin smash, according to Urban Dictionary, is the following:
A technique used by foreigners, or gaijin, in Japan in order to impose their will on the japanese.
“he upgraded himself to a first-class seat by using the Gaijin Smash”
Most cases of gaijin smash involve foreigners breaking minor rules or social conventions and getting away with it because many Japanese are either a) too disoriented by the presence of a foreigner to realize what is going on, or b) not willing to confront or agrue with a foreigner. Today’s post involved using the smash to get out of paying a porn scam, and gaijin-smashing one’s way out of paying a train fare:
My girlfriend and I lined up at the gate. She explained our situation, and the JR station guy began to fill out a note for her while she paid the ticket price. While standing there, a light bulb went off in my head - you don’t have to pay the ticket price. Just Gaijin Smash this dude. I’m not sure why I came to this conclusion - perhaps it was the way he refused to look directly at me? And while you might argue that he was just focusing his energies on the current patron, the guy did manage to look everywhere else. The look in his eyes too resembled that of prey, hoping that if it didn’t make eye contact with the circling predator, maybe, just maybe, it would turn invisible.
So after my girlfriend paid for her ticket…I simply smiled at the guy, and walked through the gate. The guy returns my smile, and says nothing as I pass through. My girlfriend is shocked. “What the hell?! You didn’t pay! And he didn’t even care! What in the…?!”
I realized then that, in all our time together, while she’s been witness to a lot of the other Gaijin Super-Powers, this was her first time seeing a Gaijin Smash.
I repeated the Gaijin Smash at the next train station. Since I hadn’t paid at JR, I didn’t have the little note saying I’d settled the balance on my card. My girlfriend is freaking out - “You can’t do that, they’re going to arrest you!” She worries. Maybe, if I was Japanese. But not with the Gaijin Smash on my side! I handed the card to the guy, and in the clearest, most perfect English I could muster, said “Oh, I made a mistake on this card, can you erase it?” Of course, I could have said “I like pleasure spiked with pain and you can be my aeroplane” and it would have been all the same to this guy. He looks at me, blinks a few times, takes the card, and promptly erases the old charge.
The overwhelming majority of comments in response to the post treated the situation as something humorous or even praise worthy. However, a couple anonymous comments scolded him for his action:
Gaijin smash on shitty porno is all right,but don’t use Gaijin smash illegally, You are contributing negatively to a stereotype of gaijin.
Az I am a big fan of you, but I suggest you to delete this post. It is possible that the police will arrest
you. Cheating on your fare on the train is a crime in Japan.
While I’ve probably used what could be called a gaijin smash at times when dealing with costumer service people, I’ve never used it to cheat a train fare. I could probably get away with it if I tried, but it’s just not a very cool thing to do. As one comment noted, it could reflect negatively upon foreigners, and it could make a gaijin smashed JR employee resentful, causing strict behavior in a future situation when some confused foreigner who has genuinely lost his or her ticket needs sympathy.
From Japanprobe.com
I never actually knew what it was called - I definitely used the technique. I would like to take this opportunity to say sorry to gaijin currently living in Japan for overuse of the Gaijin Smash. I hope I didn't wear it out for you.
