Tales From An Accidental Harlot

OK. The title is kind of misleading.

I'm not like that, but apparently, the international community has its doubts.

Women in small-towns smile at passers-by, but usually people we know. For strangers, it's a nod of the head and a twitch of the lips. In those situations, we want to seem indestructible; invincible; NOT harmless. 

Being a woman is empowering, but that doesn't make you powerful. You have to work hard at it, and it's not always an easy thing to wear or assert. 

I've heard a million times not to make eye contact in Japan.
BUT HOW?
If you do that in America, you're labeled as "awkward" and "strange" and "rude". 

So many rules are changing. 

Obviously, I will have to arrive a fly on the wall, and I may very well be that way for weeks. 

I've heard a million times that acknowledging a stranger on the sidewalk is not.......polite; that it doesn't have the same....connotations. 

Maybe friendliness doesn't matter over there the way it does here. Maybe we're so obsessed with first impressions that we're bent on creating situations that aren't necessary as an excuse to have them. Maybe it's selfish; our own image trumps other people's space and privacy. Is that what it is? Or are we truly more socially aware and better-intentioned? Is there a correct answer? Who is wrong? Is anyone wrong?

Unfortunately, none of these questions will be answered in English.

None of them will be answered in words. 

I will just have to keep walking and find out.