An Ethical and Proper Greeting in Japan

I wrote this a couple of days ago and then decided not to post it to the blog. But my wife and her friend got such a kick out of it that I decided to go ahead and share it.

My wife just proclaimed the following the image of the day, so I thought I'd should share it with you before going to bed.

I was returning to the house after just parking the car when I saw our neighbor ahead. She had her dog. A big dog, like a retriever, standing with it's paws on her shoulders. A thought crossed my mind, "She's dancing with the dog." Right then she caught my eye, so I nodded. And then I really looked at her and realized the dog wasn't dancing. Maybe dirty dancing. Dare I say, "Lambada."

She said, "Konbawa" and gave a slight bow. She was holding both paws in her hands pushing slightly to the side. But the dog wasn't moving. Not to the side anyway. I turned toward the door shielding a smile with the back of my head and finally making it through the door where I ran into my wife.

Our neighbor is a very proper woman. All our neighbors are proper, really, but she is a member of a nationwide Japanese ethics movement that stresses the utmost appropriate behavior in relationships. She is well schooled about how to act in all sorts of daily encounters, starting with the formal way she greets her husband every morning.

Pardon me, but I had a stressful day, and I really needed some comic relief. I burst out laughing as I told my wife and couldn't resist asking, "What is the appropriate way to greet your neighbor when your dog is...

There was no need to complete the sentence.

Allright, I've got that out of my system. I took some more plum blossom pictures yesterday that I'll post soon. :)