I've been in Japan seven or so months now. It's gotten so that I can now respond in the appropriate manner to the things that really caught me off balance the first time I encountered them. For example, I can participate in a bowing war, can step naked into a public bath with lots of other naked women who I've just met, can rebuff the excessive apologizing ("You must have hurt your foot when you stepped on me. I'm so sorry!"), and have memorized the answer in Japanese to the first thing that every guy I meet seems to ask me, "What do you think of Japanese guys?" Otherwise, Japanese people have been reassuringly and surprisingly similar in social manners to the English, the old-fashioned type, anyway. You don't strike up conversation with strangers unless drunk, you leave the last piece of the dish for someone else, you let other people off the train before you get on it, and best of all, Japanese people know how to queue.

There's one social custom, however, that still leaves me completely bewildered as how to respond to. I have been horrified find out that the Japanese in one particular social area, lack the common decency to refrain from complimenting you about yourself. This is an experience that I can never be exposed to without completely making a fool of myself. I'll give you a few examples:

*I pass chopsticks to my friend at the end of the table*

Friend: You are a very considerate girl!

Me: What? Oh, er, no, not really..

*I beat my friend narrowly at an arcade game*

Friend: Cassie, you are amazing!

Me: *Grinning* Nah, you're just not very good. (I see my friend's face.)

Wait! That was a joke.

Friend: (Out of nowhere) "Cassie's smiling face is very beautiful!"

Me: What the fuck?

I have actually tried - this is actually true - complimenting Japanese people purely in order to find out what to do when I'm the one being complimented. Apparently, you nod your head and say "Thank you". Who'd have thought?