This “gaijin fever” was something I was stuck with throughout the walk, and it was nice, if a bit naughty, to take advantage of it for once. Because in most cases, it was a disadvantage. Few people would talk to me first. Once I spoke to someone in Japanese, they would visibly sigh with relief, and with the fever subsiding, I would be treated like a reasonably normal person. On entering a restaurant, a comment in Japanese about the weather was usually enough to restore normality. After all, no one expects a tall gaijin in shorts carrying a big backpack to enter a tiny country shokudo!
