Ladies First

I've made my peace with Tokyo, for the most part. I'm enjoying my life here. I find certain things about it fascinating, other things bizarre, others amusing. But there are also things I find FREAKING ANNOYING and that's what this post is about.

Every expat I know here has a pet peeve about Tokyo. And mine is this: men who charge in/out of the elevator or doors before you. LADIES FIRST MOTHERF*ERS! It's one thing if they were actually in FRONT of you, but here there are guys that are standing behind me, but will charge forward to get in or out of the elevator first or out of the door first and it freaking pisses me off. I deal with it every single day in my office building and every single time it happens I want to scream. I realize that "ladies first" may be a Western thing. Even the douchiest of douchebags in the US or Europe will open the door for you and let you go through first or wait for the women to go before heading in/out. I thought it was normal - the last vestige of chivalry in the modern world. But in Tokyo, it's men first ALL THE TIME. And it irritates me more than fingernails scratching a chalkboard. More than the passive aggression, more than the two-facedness, more than the politeness, more than the "don't eat on the street or in public" rules and "don't talk on the subway" rules and all the other rules, more than anything else, what annoys me about Tokyo is the "men first, always" rule.