too long in japan...

sept 8th 16:42 tokyo tower from my desk

first i would like to say thank you to kupu-kupu for being kind enough to leave a comment(my bery berrrry 1st) on 1 of my recent postings...i would like to say again terima kasih bebanyak and...BANZAI!!!BANZAI!!!

on today's issue....several years back,i started to make an observation on myself...about my behaviour,my likes and dislikes,my actions,my perception and my opinion.as a result,i have listed below some odd symptoms which i'm experiencing.
after consulting with my close friends(among them 1 is a shrink),they concluded that the reason i'm having the odd symptoms below is because i've been in japan too long.

• can't have my picture taken without your fingers forming the peace sign
  
• on a phone an English-speaking gaijin friend and somehow can't bring yourself to get to the point for the first 3 minutes of the conversation.
  
• find yourself bowing while you talk on the phone.
  
• feel absolutely nothing strange when there is a makcik in the toilet cleaning the urine bowl next to you while you're peeing.
  
• when you pronounce words like "mix" as having three syllibles.(mikusu)
  
• think powdered coffee creamer is "milk."
  
• think 10 visits to the dentist to fix a tooth is reasonable.
  
• use the word "sharp-pen" and can't remember the English name [it was 'mechanical pencil' last time I checked].
  
• start saying things like: "Yes, I can't do this."
  
• see Japanese tourists in KL who remind you of people back home.
  
• get excited by words like: "health," "soap," "fashion," "image,"and "pink".
  
• ask a gaijin colleague who wears short sleeves in October, "Aren't you cold?"
  
• you say that one of your hobbies is "doraibu."(driving a car)
  
• find myself apologizing at least three times per conversation.
  
• can't find the "open" and "close" buttons in the elevator because they're in English.
  
• having gaijin around me is a source of stress.
  
• get a "Nihongo ga joozu" (hey!ur japanese is good) and feel really insulted.
  
• get on a train with a number of gaijin on it and you feel uneasy because the harmony is broken.
  
• get frustrated at your 'baka gaijin' friends constantly asking you "How do you say ________ in japanese?".
  
• ask fellow foreigners the all-important question "How long have you been here?" in order to be able to properly categorize them.
  
• have discovered the sexual attraction of japanese high school girl uniforms.
  
• think wet umbrellas need condoms.
  

*gaijin=non-japanese in japan,baka=stupid,helpless