Kyoto legend in the making?
Hello everyone! I had an interesting conversation with my sister the other day, and I was curious to know how many other people had had this experience. I spent a year in Japan and visited Kyoto four times on vacations. My sister did a 4-month study abroad homestay in Kyoto. Walking around one day, she ran into this weird old man with good English, who insisted she help him correct the English in this paper he was writing for a PHD or somesuch. He wouldn't let her alone until she'd at least looked at a couple paragraphs.
A few days later, she and some friends ran into a group of foreigners who were standing around correcting sheets of paper. When asked what on earth they were doing, they told the same story of a crazy old guy who harrassed them with paper corrections until they finally gave in.
This story triggered a memory I'd forgotten all about. Near Gion on my first trip to Kyoto, I ran into the SAME old guy with my friends. We were looking for a restaurant and told him we were busy, but he followed us for two streets until we finally admitted defeat and checked paragraphs for him in this huge, dictonary-sized tome he was carting around with him. This guy is sort of skinny with glasses, has very good English (which makes you wonder why he needs corrections from random gaijin in the street), and says he's working on a PHD thesis.
What I want to know is, has anyone else who's been to Kyoto seen this man? Also, a challenge: for those of you who will visit in the future, can someone maybe find out who on earth this guy actually is? Within common sense for saftey of course ^_^
I think we may have the makings of little Kyoto urban legend here...
Cross-posted to japanophile
A few days later, she and some friends ran into a group of foreigners who were standing around correcting sheets of paper. When asked what on earth they were doing, they told the same story of a crazy old guy who harrassed them with paper corrections until they finally gave in.
This story triggered a memory I'd forgotten all about. Near Gion on my first trip to Kyoto, I ran into the SAME old guy with my friends. We were looking for a restaurant and told him we were busy, but he followed us for two streets until we finally admitted defeat and checked paragraphs for him in this huge, dictonary-sized tome he was carting around with him. This guy is sort of skinny with glasses, has very good English (which makes you wonder why he needs corrections from random gaijin in the street), and says he's working on a PHD thesis.
What I want to know is, has anyone else who's been to Kyoto seen this man? Also, a challenge: for those of you who will visit in the future, can someone maybe find out who on earth this guy actually is? Within common sense for saftey of course ^_^
I think we may have the makings of little Kyoto urban legend here...
Cross-posted to japanophile