Getting hassled at the swimming pool

This is a new topic -  getting hassled by The Man. Everyone gets hassled by the man at some point in their lives. Some people shrug their shoulders and other people fight back. Both options have good points and bad points, however I believe that not all battles against The Man are worth fighting, as The Man is strong...but he can be beaten.

I've always had The Man hassle me in whatever country I have been to and I've mostly tried to fight back, rather than shrug my shoulders. Now that I live in Japan, The Man tends to be more in my face. This is because I am a minority and not being part of the socialisation process that continually goes on in everyone's lives has made me stick out and become a target of The Man. Obviously not looking Japanese makes me stick out to the locals like a lonely blue M&M in a pile of red ones. When I lived in the UK I would almost certainly fight back against the shit that The Man gave me, however in Japan I have learnt that patience is indeed a virtue and so this is probably why I have only lost my temper in public to The Man a total number of three times (three times in seven years is pretty good going).

Anyway, here is today's story....

I went swimming after spending a whole day stuck in front of my computer screen. I was researching all day and at the end of it all I decided to go swimming. I got to the swimming pool at 6.30pm. The swimming pool is a 50m Olympic style one and there were only 3 other people in the pool. No one goes swimming on a Saturday night. Those people that do are either researchers, training for some swimming competition, trying to get a date at the swimming pool, or just really in need of a swim. So I got in and I did one lap. However on my return The Man hassled me. The Man was actually an older Japanese woman and she pointed out to me that I shouldn't swim in the middle of the lane. Instead I should swim on the right side of the lane and I should swim in a clockwise manner. I was actually swimming in a clockwise manner, but I had swam IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LANE. Shock! Horror! At first I thought she was joking, but her expression and lack of polite language made me realize that she wasn't. I looked around at the pool and the other 3 swimmers. The whole pool was open and there was no sectioning of lanes. The other swimmers were swimming clockwise...and like me, they were swimming IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LANE. One man was swimming ALL OVER THE PLACE. So instead of getting angry, I said "Ok, I got it" (in Japanese) and I continued swimming. When I got to the other end of the pool the same woman continued to hassle me by making erratic hand gestures from her end of the pool. I couldn't see her face so well and her erratic gestures could have been an attempt to land a 747 on approach to the pool. I pointed at myself and gave her a "what?!" gesture. She then got out of her life guard seat and moved to the side of the pool to physically show me which lane to swim in. As all this was going on, the other 3 swimmers were still swimming ALL OVER THE PLACE. I then deliberated swam back to her end IN THE WRONG LANE, but not ALL OVER THE PLACE. I was starting to get pissed off and I wanted to see her reaction to my deliberate breaking of the rules. However when I got to her end she was talking to another swimming pool staff member. They both looked at me and...said nothing. Yes. I have found that a difficult, out-of-book situation happens in Japan, people tend to do nothing in the hope of the problem just dissolving by itself. The theory behind solving problems this way is in fact sound as if the harmony has being already broken, then breaking it further just serves to make the problem worse. Also Japanese people are brought up to realise and understand when that harmony will be or has been broken. However as people from other countries have different sets of behaviours and beliefs, this reasoning doesn't really work for them. Hence I deliberately broken the harmony by challenging her. In the end I continued swimming and shrugged off the situation...until I got home. Here at home I thought that maybe I should have asked her to explain the rules to the other Japanese swimmers. However past experiences in these matters have only led me to become more frustrated and angry with people who hassle me.

So the lessons learned today were:
- Challenge The Man, but avoid direct confrontations
- Make sure to read the rules of swimming, before swimming in the pool that I have been going to for the past 7 years.
- Invisible 747s trying to land in swimming pools don't exist. If a local Japanese person is making erratic gestures, it means they are talking to YOU.