someone in lab today came in, looking like he was in pain, and someone else asked what was wrong. he answered,「痔が痛い」looking pained and holding his back, and everyone expressed their condolences and looked rather unhappy on his behalf. the response was such that i figured it was some guy thing that everyone would feel awkward explaining it to me.
then, guy in question looked over and said “hey, she probably doesn’t understand what we’re talking about. do you know what 痔 is?” i responded with a typical “eh?” head tilt. then he tried explaining the concept of hemorrhoids to me in a strange mix of japanese and english, because why would you need to know that in a foreign language? in fact, i’m not entirely sure why he even had the vocabulary to the extent he did on the matter.
on the one hand, TMI. i probably didn’t need to know that, ever. on the other hand, there’s an otherwise all-male social group in japan that has accepted me to the extent that i get awkward things explained to me without prodding. which is kind of awesome.
