Watch Your Mouth!

It is a well known fact that Japanese people are very helpful. This is a wonderful quality to have but as an American visiting Japan, you quickly learn when to hold your tongue. In America complaints such as "I'm hungry" or "my head hurts" are simply vaguely annoying but quite common. Japanese people are definitely not above complaining. "I'm hungry" "its so hot" etc etc are heard often. However, as a foreigner, the minute you speak openly about your discomfort it is like you put whichever Japanese person you are with into emergency mode. They will worry about said discomfort all day or until they can have it fixed.
They are also very sensitive to any interest you might show in anything around you. For example, I went out to dinner with Serina and her Aunt after USJ on Saturday. I knew we were running late and so we were hurrying through a shopping mall. I saw a store that looked interesting and all I did was simply look inside on our way past and Serina asked "Do you want to look around?". I of course replied that no, we had an appointment to get to and she looked pleased. As if I had passed a test. However, Test or not, I know that if I had said "yes" we would have done just that. She would have silently informed her aunt that we would be even more late but she probably would not have reminded me about our appointment. She simply would have made me as happy as possible and indulged in everything I wanted to do.

For the most part, this quality is a good thing. The sensitivity to others is something that I think everyone should have a bit of but as a gaijin, you learn very quickly when and how to subtly hint at what you would like to do without being direct, and when to keep your complaints and desires to yourself for the good of whichever freakishly accommodating Japanese person you are with.