I read an article on BBC’s news site about a study of facial expressions around the world, which essentially found that expressions aren’t necessarily universal, and might be interpreted differently depending on a person’s cultural background. While I don’t remember having any confusion over reading facial expressions when I arrived in Japan, I do remember having difficulty with the various gestures the Japanese use in their daily lives, such as the famous Lucky Cat gesture for “come here,” which looks to Westerners as if the person were shooing you away with their hand. Japan’s body language does seem to be extremely rich and complex, perhaps because gestures allow for mugon ryokai or communicating without words, a specialty of the Japanesey. Some other common gestures used here include a raised pinky or thumb, which mean “girlfriend?” or “boyfriend?” respectively (i.e., do you have a hot date tonight?); cutting your cheek with your thumbnail, which means, “be careful of that person, he might be a yakuza“; covering your mouth with your hand as if whispering, which means, “I think that person might be gay”; and making devil’s horns with your fingers, which is, “if I stay out late drinking, my wife will turn into a demon and punish me.” If you’d like to learn more about Japan’s gestures, we’ve gotten in a nice book for you in San Diego.
This might mean, “Is that a call from your girlfriend?”
