High Five Escalator in Japan

How were they acting like assholes? Eccentric? Yes. Assholes? Hardly.

Yeah. Lying down across multiple train seats when there are old crippled ladies who need to sit, spitting gum onto the floor, pushing people, making babies cry, cutting in line, and…high-fiving people. TOTAL asshole behaviour. You just know that the yakuza started out with high-fives.

I was just thinking how awkward it looked giving a left handed high-five. I think they would have had better results with a right handed version. Plus it would take advantage of the slower people on the right (who might not be in a hurry).

But anyway, looked like a fun time.

How is “standing near the top of the escalator with your hand up” obnoxious behaviour? I can understand “high-fiving people who don’t want to participate”, or “not letting people pass until they high-five”, but standing off to one side, passively, allowing those who wish to high-five to do so, and those who don’t wish to not to, is obnoxious? What else is obnoxious? Working at a food booth, allowing people who want to buy your goods to do so, while people who are uninterested can pass? Manning the information desk at a department store, helping those who come to you and letting people without questions walk by?

Is the escalator itself obnoxious? After all, it’s off there, to the side of the stairs, allowing people who wish to use it to do so, and people who don’t wish to use it can easily avoid it. It seems just as obnoxious as the high-fiver.