Sitting next to a "goldfish"?

Am finally back from Tokyo! Had a good week of R and R there. Didnt get everything I set out to buy but ended up with some things I didnt expect to buy. Had to rein in a bit since the Yen was so strong but seriously, if I cannot find it out of Japan, what's the point of travelling there to see what I want and not buy?


I often had the best of "luck" when it comes to having weird people sitting in the airplane. Heading there was fine since we got upgraded. My partner made a joke about Japanese babies. He said that there must be a quota of noise a Japanese baby can make because they are "told" not to make noise. Seriously, I was seriously by several Japanese kids and except for a few soft whimper or two, you couldnt tell there werer kids on board with me! There was barely a squeek from the baby in tow and the 5 year old sister. If instead we change it to a bunch of American kids or even some spoilt chinese kids, it would never ever be this peaceful flight. There will be excessive talking in loud voices, hyperactive chairs shaking, plenty of walking about etc etc. This is when I seriously love the Japanese upbringing of their children in public spaces, consideration for others.

On flight back to HK. I must be the champion in the random "good" luck . This time round, I had the "honor" of siting to this Japanese dude. Japanese and u think you should be safe relatively right? Sigh.

He was quiet and considerate as a typical Japanese but he had this strange, really strange habit throughout the 4.25hr of return trip. He couldnt keep his mouth shut. No seriously, he was constantly having his two fingers touching his moustache, and he kept puffing air out of his mouth. It was like watching a human goldfish out of water if you know what I mean. The mouth wide open, eyes buldging and all. And the smell from his mouth wasnt exactly pleasant too. Not as bad as someone farting but its quite sick to be smelling someone else's mouth for 4 hours. I dont even go around smelling my parter's breath the whole time!

Initially I thought he was just equalising his ear pressure but after 1 hour, you have got to admit something was not right...And once I realised his weird habits, my imagination started to kick in and my brain engine boot started, speculating a million reasons why he would do that. The Japanese animation of Ponya the cute girl fish turned human didnt escape my mind too....but he wasnt cute at all...LOL

I didnt know if I was leaning towards facsination, or towards being sick from his bad breath. He must have caught me staring at him (or his open mouth) and he tried to shut it and put his hands away. But when my head is turned, he was back to his old act.

I should keep a little black book of the least to most offensive people I have ever sit around with in a plane. Then I should compare notes with other people and see if I truly am the true magnet of weirdos and nasties on the plane....