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I’m now suspecting that Japanese phonetic features influence how people act. Japanese people always start their actions in response to a trigger, while others tend to act based on a prediction of what will happen.

Since I came back to Japan, I go mad almost routinely—especially when walking on the street. When I adjust my path to avoid colliding with someone, they always move in the same direction — into the space I already moved into. This happens almost every time.

My observation is that I predict where the other person is going and move in the opposite direction. But the other person sees me at that moment and moves into the space where I am not currently standing, without any prediction.

This reminds me of the Tatenori rhythm.

I had been living in Bangkok for years, and I often enjoyed taking a walk in the narrow side pathway of Sukhumvit Street. There were many people from many countries in a place that was called a melting pot of races, including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

In such a chaotic place, it is sometimes very difficult to tell whether an Asian person is from China or Japan. But it is actually very easy to tell the difference: if the guy comes in the same direction where you already moved into, the guy is Japanese. I don’t know why I think this way; it may be because I can tell the person is Japanese or not only by their appearance, or there may be other factors comes into me.