Wide-Eyed Wonder

Each time we've gone off base with our little one, we've attracted a small crowd.  Fellow milfamilies warned us about this phenomenon before our daughter was born but I was unprepared for the gifts!  Yes, gifts.  Let me share an example:

We and a couple friends spent the day at Mt. Takao a few weeks ago.  Lots of fun.  Before riding the rail up the mountain we needed to fill our tummies.  We sit, we order, we drool over others' food as its delicious scents waft our way.  All the while dd wiggles, coos, drools, typical baby stuff.  The eyes of the lady and sons at the table next to us are riveted upon all this American babyness - simply unable to look away.  Next thing I know one of the pint-sized sons is handing over a toy at the coaching of his mother, "Dozo, dozo, dooooozo."  Yeah, we were a little dense.

I'm always afraid of looking the wrong way or saying the wrong thing or just in general looking stupid, but that fear is amplified when out and about in an unfamiliar culture where I can't even pretend to read the signs.  My solution?  Keep my eyes down, smile, and nod.  Periodically toss in the handful of Japanese words I know and hope I didn't just call someone a dufus.  My strategy was failing miserably and the pizza hadn't even arrived yet.  Crud.

Well as it turns out, this family was being super nice and just wanted to share something cool with our little girl.  I'm sure I totally botched the whole thank-you-and-bow bit and they must have walked away wondering just how many more times they were going to have to say "Doooooozo" (please, as in I am offering this to you, please take it dingbat) before the idiot American caught on (they literally must have said it about 20 times), but all in all it was pretty neat.

I assumed this was a one-time deal.  Nope!  Our daughter has been the oblivious recipient of now two unsolicited gifts from random strangers.  I really need to read up on this phenomenon - how do you deal with people giving you stuff you can't use, didn't ask for, or don't know what it is?!  I'm not ranting, I'm just curious.  I've been told it's terribly rude to refuse a gift in Japan (understandably so) but I didn't even realize that first family was trying to give us a gift - I thought they just meant dd could play with the toy while we were sitting there (which wasn't going to happen - 5 second rule is one thing, but letting your 3-month-old knaw on a toy of undisclosed history is quite another).

This type of event is becoming rather frequent.  People here positively gape at our daughter, coo at her, and otherwise indicate that they are impressed.  Yes, she's cute (oh I'm not biased at all, no) - all babies are cute (not as cute as she is, but that's okay ;p), but in Japan, the American brand of cuteness is apparently a hot commodity.  We've had more than one discussion with strangers running something like this:
"She? He?"
-Yes, she.
"Sleeping? (or drooling, or whatever she is obviously doing at the time)
-Yes, sleeping.
"She has small head, round face, not like Japanese"
-Ah, yes, thank you (seriously, how do you respond to that?).

Families with blond-haired, blue-eyed children tell me they get it the worst.  People randomly come out of nowhere and rub their kids' heads.  Ack!  We haven't had to deal with that one (I have issues with people touching me and I'm not too keen about strangers touching my baby girl!) but I really am at a loss at all this wide-eyed wonder she seems to generate all around her.  So much for staying incunspicuous!