Zena Woodley

Live classical music my passion; and books my comfort. Not much passion right now..
Opinions, however misguided, all mine.

[PommChelle 🌻 🐾 @Millicent099]

@SamuraiShibaJP Bless you. This account is worth its weight in gold. I am so happy I'm able to read your posts everyday.

[Dan Pitzer @DanPitzer]

@SamuraiShibaJP Regarding the baby on the train - It's not JUST our natural friendliness.

An entertained, giggling baby is WAY better to be around than an angry/scared/bored baby who has decided to make it everyone else's problem by crying.

If I have to make silly faces to prevent that, fine.

[Samurai Shiba @SamuraiShibaJP]

Every Japanese person can spot an American from a block away.

Before you say a word. Before we notice your height. Even if you're wearing a kimono. Even if you're bowing correctly. Especially then.

I didn't believe it. So I asked people all over Tokyo how they do it.

Nobody had to think. Everyone had a method.

Here are your tells, America.

A salaryman, 44:
"If a stranger smiles at you in Tokyo, you check your zipper. If the zipper is fine, it's an American."

A barber, 70:
"A Japanese man sits in my chair and says nothing for forty minutes. An American sits down, and by the time I'm done, I know about his truck, his knee and his daughter's softball team, and I'm invited fishing in Montana. I have been invited fishing in fourteen states. I have never fished. I keep every invitation."

A man who sells roasted sweet potatoes from a truck, 72:
"Japanese customers say thank you. Americans tell me it's the best sweet potato of their lives. No exceptions. By now, I have sold the best sweet potato of about twelve thousand lives. My wife says I have become unbearable."

A mother of two, 34:
"On a train, Japanese adults pretend babies are invisible. Americans make faces at them. By the third stop, my son has picked the American as his new father."

A karaoke bar owner, 63:
"When a Japanese man sings terribly, the room goes silent out of respect. When an American hears it, he grabs the second microphone. Now they are terrible together. Musically, it is a crime. Spiritually, it is the best thing that happens in my bar."

An office worker, 27:
"If a Japanese person bumps into you, he apologizes to the floor. An American apologizes to your face. Then asks where you're from. Then shows you all nine of his grandkids in Idaho. You came for the train. You leave with a grandfather."

A station attendant, 58:
"You can tell by the walk. Japanese people walk like they're late. Americans walk like they're going somewhere they'll be welcome."

Then I asked Mrs. Tsurumi.

She's 78. She has run a small massage clinic two doors from my apartment for 41 years.

She has been blind since she was nine.

I asked her as a joke.

She didn't laugh.

"Oh, that's easy," she said.

"On my way to the station, I hear everyone. Hundreds of footsteps. They all bend around me, like water around a rock. Very polite. Very careful. Nobody touches me. Nobody says anything.

Then one set of footsteps changes direction.

It turns toward me.

That's always an American."

She says they never just help. They narrate.

"Hi there. Step coming up. I've got your elbow. That's a beautiful scarf, by the way."

"Japanese people help me too," she said. "But quietly, so I won't feel embarrassed.

Americans help me out loud. So I won't feel alone."

Once, a big man walked her all the way to her clinic, calling the whole street like a football game. "Bicycle on your left. Nice lady on your right. She's smiling at you. Now she's smiling at me. Ma'am, I think we're famous."

Then he booked a massage. He was asleep in four minutes. She says he snored with an accent. She guessed Boston. When he woke up, she asked. It was Boston.

Once, she asked a young Marine why Americans always turn around.

He seemed confused by the question.

"Ma'am, you were by yourself."

I asked her what Americans look like.

The last face she saw was in 1957. She took her time.

"Like someone turning around."

Then I asked her about me. I've lived two doors down for eleven years.

She knew my footsteps right away.

"You're the one who goes around me every morning," she said. "Very polite."

She said it kindly. It still hit me like a truck.

The next morning, I heard her cane at the corner by the station.

I stopped. And I turned around.

"Good morning, Mrs. Tsurumi. Step coming up."

She stood very still for a second. Then she smiled the biggest smile I have ever seen on her.

"Well, look at that," she said. "Where are you from?"

So, America. People say you're too loud. Too friendly. Too quick to talk to strangers.

Please don't fix that. It's catching.

A blind woman in Tokyo can pick you out of a crowd of a thousand. Not by how you look. By which way you walk.

Every morning now, she guesses wrong once.

It's me.

[Michelle LA🇨🇦 @MichelleLA1981]

Mark Carney knew about this Stellantis deal long before we were told. And now hes acting shocked like he didn't know? This fucking loser is nothing but a lying conman.

[Zena Woodley @PrincessofWails]

@mjwrightNJ Prayers offered 🙏🙏

[Devonviews ❤🚜🙏 @devonviews]

This Euro Nut Job, just had his ass kicked by the Polish Supreme Court, they have ruled his orders issued on October 30, illegal.

Now kick him out of the country!

🇪🇺☠️🇪🇺

[Tim Young @TimRunsHisMouth]

Professional grifter laughing at the suckers she fooled.

[Sandra Weeden @SandraWeeden]

Remember these restrictions?

[Rose @Buckeyerose2025]

@SamuraiShibaJP “Every family in America was a new kid once…”

So true! Perhaps that’s why Americans welcome everyone with an open heart.

If I were asked to describe America, I would need two words: Love and Freedom. You can’t have one without the other. They go hand in hand.

[Samurai Shiba @SamuraiShibaJP]

My nephew's teacher played a game with her class of thirty 10-year-olds.

Describe America. One rule. You can't say "big," "hamburger," or "cowboy."

Thirty Japanese children. Completely stuck.

"...Large?"

Disqualified.

"A country where milk comes in a bucket." (It's a gallon jug. He saw it on YouTube. He is still upset.)

"A place where your dog can go shopping with you."

"Where strangers say 'Good morning' and they're not selling anything."

"Where people walked on the moon, came home, and mowed the lawn like it was nothing."

"Where there's a holiday that is only eating."

"Where people wave at a car even if they don't know the car."

"...Not small?"

Disqualified. Same boy.

"...Medium-large?"

The teacher put her head down on the desk.

Then Mitsuki put her hand up. Halfway. She's the shyest kid in the room. When she was eight, she lived for a year in a town of 9,000 in Ohio. Her dad's company sent him.

"A place where 24 kids practice your name before they meet you."

The class didn't understand.

On her first morning at school in Ohio, she was so scared she couldn't eat breakfast. She knew about ten English words. At the classroom door, she wouldn't let go of her mother's hand.

She walked in. Twenty-four third graders stood up.

"Good morning, Mitsuki!"

Perfect. Every syllable. In unison.

Their teacher, Mrs. Dombrowski, had found a video of a Japanese woman saying the name, and drilled the class for a week. One boy practiced so much his mother emailed the school. He was saying it in his sleep.

Mitsuki found out why on her last day.

In 1949, Mrs. Dombrowski's grandmother came to Ohio from Poland at nine years old. For her whole first year of school, nobody learned her name. They just called her "the new girl."

So every year, before a new kid arrives, Mrs. Dombrowski's class practices.

"Every family in America was the new kid once," she told Mitsuki. "Some of us remember."

On Mitsuki's last day, they said goodbye in Japanese. Mrs. Dombrowski cried harder than anyone.

"In Japan, everybody already knows how to say my name," Mitsuki told our class. "Nobody has to practice."

Thirty 10-year-olds went very quiet.

The boy who kept saying "large" put his hand up.

"Is anyone new coming? We could practice."

Nobody was new. So the teacher told them about the six women who cook lunch for 600 kids every day, in a kitchen the kids never see. Mrs. Kurihara has worked there for 26 years. Not one child has ever said her name.

The next morning, thirty kids lined up at the kitchen door.

"Good morning, Mrs. Kurihara!"

Perfect. Every syllable.

She covered her face with her apron. So did the other five.

America, thirty Japanese kids tried to describe you and weren't allowed to call you big.

So they called you kind.

Then they went and did it.

[JCH1066🇬🇧 @JCH1066pu]

@Josh_Self_ @MaggiesMole Absolutely spot on Tom Tugenhat.

What a nasty, spiteful face on the labour MP.

[Adam Sellers @YisraelChaiAdam]

@Josh_Self_ Average Labour MP when you tell Palestinians have to take some personal responsibility and Hamas are bad actually :

[joshua rowe @joshuarowe1]

@Josh_Self_ @TomTugendhat Well said Mr Tugendhat MP !!!

[G @GGl2047133]

@Josh_Self_ The face you make when truth hurts:

[Jaci @Jaci99709Jaci]

@Josh_Self_ Tom is completely correct and about time someone said it 👏

[Cranberry Pointy Toes Kazi54 🌸🧚🏻🙂 @KarenJukes2]

@Josh_Self_ Why did the deputy speaker only look at Tom when she is asking for calm ?

It’s Labour who need to be civil .

[Somerset Blue 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇺🇸 🇮🇱 @SomersetWasBlue]

@Josh_Self_ At last!!! Someone called out #Labour’s duplicity and exposed their silence on #Hamas for what it is…a shameful attempt to keep the Islamist vote onside. Well done @TomTugendhat!!

[Josh Self @Josh_Self_]

Tom Tugendhat: “I can see the lady shaking her head – if she wants to side with Hamas she is welcome to, but if she wishes to stand with Palestinian people she should recognise what Hamas has done”

Labour MPs: “Shame!”

[Mick Prich @mikeyonman]

Good morning fabulous souls, it’s Friday and I’m home😇
Fuck em Friday is all for Rayner, daft cow. Dear little Piddington is to be enhanced with lots of gimmigrants. They have my sympathy for what is to come but also brought it on themselves by being part of the welcome
SB😊😊

[Nile Gardiner @NileGardiner]

The Polish people want @donaldtusk out of office.