So I'm in this high-level meeting today, and during a bit of a lull the Director across the table from me says, "So what does your shirt say, anyway?"

"Uh... it says 'I am a strange foreigner...'" is about all I could manage. Apparently the (caucasian) Director can read a little Japanese. "Ah... yes, that one means 'Gaijin'... Heh heh". So after that it was class clown time. Might as well; the damage was done. And the meeting was mostly over anyway.

I didn't know that the meeting this afternoon was going to be filled with brass. This was the third in a series about this one particular project, and without looking at the meeting details, there was nothing special to set it apart from the others -- which only had four people attending. There were a dozen of us in there today.

Point is, I wasn't thinking about my work-wear, any more than usual. I don't really care if what I'm wearing meets someone's definition of fashionable. That's not how get I dressed -- unless some non-normal occassion warrants extra thought in the clothes department. I mean to say that I merely used my semi-autonomic, base criteria method for selecting clothing this morning:

• No obvious bleach/grease/bodily fluid stains
• Not too many holes or tears
• Odors not detectable from more than two feet away
• On the top of the pile

Had I known, I would have worn something less skater-dude. I mean, I like the shirt. It's comfortable and roomy, and hardly anyone can tell what it means. So if it's handy when I'm coming out of the shower, I'll put it on without worrying about what it looks like, per se. It's not that I wasn't thinking this morning, it was that I just didn't know to bother with it.

But that's second time I've gotten a reaction from the shirt. The first was when Kumiko (the really cool Japanese translation lady who is working with officemate Jim) came by the office. She was in there talking to us for a full 15 minutes before she even noticed that I was wearing something with Kanji on it. And she thought it was hilarious. "Well, yes. Every foreigner is weird. To Japanese. But it is funny to see you wearing it."

Not sure how to take that.