“Taxi Driver”
Never, ever touch the door of a taxi in Tokyo.
If you think you are being helpful opening your own door, you are not.
If you think you are being kind opening the door for someone else in your party, wrong again.
You are offending the very fibre of a subculture by your ignorant efforts. Once you hail the cab, wait patiently. The taxi doors are automatic and the driver will open it for you at precisely the right moment. He cannot be rushed or coerced into opening it sooner. There is no compromise to this. If you reach for it, he will peel off. If you succeed in opening it, you will be screeched at in incomprehensible Japanese that even a local wouldn’t understand. Few fits of rage are as immediate in their delivery. Few outbursts as violently spat. Most foreigners who encounter this are confused about what could have triggered such a flammable reaction. It looks like any other door handle to us. But it’s their most personal possession and they don’t want any of your aura transferring to it. Their reason for being is to make sure no human contact ever breeches their rear door. And don’t try to be helpful at the end of the ride by closing the door yourself. It carries the same insult. Every time a foreigner absent mindedly touches a taxi door in Tokyo, it sets back the uphill fight of all foreigners living in Japan. So please, for the sake of all of us for whom Japan isn’t a drop-in-drop-out business trip, don’t ever touch the damn taxi doors in Tokyo.
