Posted on by Storytime with John

Japanese Faces

I just read of a Japanese proverb which goes something like; “you have three faces, – the first you show the world, the second you show to those closest to you, and the third you never show anyone…this is the truest reflection of yourself.”

Mirror CK GIF

 What do you think about that?

Well I’m not so sure, people often bandy around the expression “two faced” with differing levels of severity; ranging from iconic comic book villain, to your husband/wife sleeping with the neighbour for twenty years. But the truth is we all wear a whole host of different masks – we are each our own personal halloween costume store, and we pick and choose a different guise as and when necessary.

For your viewing pleasure why don’t you take a little tour around my little internal shop? Let’s see what you may find! :

1. The “I just ate an entire large pizza by myself, but I’m not even sorry” face:

Pizza GIF

2. The “what you said wasn’t remotely funny, but I’m trying to spare your feelings” face:

Fake Smile GIF

3. The “why are you distracting me from writing with YouTube videos?” face:

Distraction GIF

4. The “hello little old lady, I promise I’m not one of those hooligan/thug kids you hear about” face:

Innocent Smile GIF

5. The “kindergarten teacher” face, aka – the “John Lee Taggart”:

Kindergarten Teacher GIF

Clearly there are many, many, many more…but I am sure there are other stores to visit, and perhaps you are a little peckish – so off you pop, and come again soon! I get a new collection of masks every month! 

But what about you? Come onnnnnn…honesty is the best policy!

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28 Replies to “Japanese Faces”

  7. The Japanese forgot the passport photo face: the face you wish you never had to show anyone. It’s always a face that you NEVER see in the mirror and surely never show to anyone in public…unless you happen to be a serial killer. What face-bending techno trickery goes on in those photo booths is a mystery.

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  10. I’ve got an I’m-so-disgusted-with-my-life face that I try never to show anyone in public. I’ve let it slip on a few occasions, and when strangers see it they think that it’s directed at them, and then they do things like lean out of their car window and say, “Screw you too, jack!”

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  11. I agree sometimes we keep aloof from strangers behave so unlike our true self, when in the comfort of our dear ones we act differently sometimes put on a brave face to save our face and later when we are with ourselves we face the real us.:-)

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  16. These are good faces to identify: bored, brave, confused, disgusted, dazed, embarrassed, excited, friendly, frustrated, happy, hopeful, hurt, impatient, jealous, lonely, mad, mischievous, nervous, playful, proud, sad, scared, shy, silly, snobbish, sorry,, surprised, tired, unfriendly, worried … 😀

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  17. Thank you for liking “Glory of the Grass.” This is the second time this week that I have come across a post that discusses this Japanese proverb about three faces! 🙂 I think the face that I sometimes struggle with is the inappropriate laughter face. You see something funny, but everyone else is so serious around you that you don’t want to attract attention to yourself by laughing or worse attract the attention of the person who unintentionally makes you want to laugh. This happened to me when I was on a tour of a natural history museum in high school. This is sort of gross, but the tour guide had a little bit of snot and mucus dripping from his nose. As he walked around and moved his head, this thin thread of snot and mucus coming out of his nose swung around with him and got longer and longer. Nobody said anything, but I could tell people noticed what I noticed about the tour guide. I must have had a weird puckered look on my face while I was sucking in the urge to laugh at this awful sight.

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      1. I know! 🙂 Life’s twisted sense of humor strikes again! I would not blame you if you did roll on the floor in laughter. I am happy that I am now free to laugh at this incident as much as I want to, which I have done for the past few days since I told you this story . 🙂

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