I was a member of a humble off today. On my way to the morning teachers meeting, I reached for the door to leave the teachers room and it opened with unexpected ease. To my surprise, one of the office assistants was entering the room and we opened the door at the same time and started a pretty brutal humble off.
I stood for a half a second before stepping to the side and saying "dozo!" (that means please, go ahead) but instead of walking through the door, she stepped to the side and one upped me, saying "dozo, dozo." I wasn't about to just walk through the door quite yet so I gave her a "dozo, dozo" slightly bowing with each "dozo." The rest was difficult to remember. Before long, we were each yelling at each other "DOZO!" and I was giving my crappy American-style-barely-bending-at-the-waist bows with each "DOZO!" and she was giving a full Japanese professional 90 degree, back parallel to the floor bow with each "DOZO!" I could not keep up with her pace, I began getting a little light headed and admitted defeat after about 15 "dozo's" and walked through the door, but I gave her a "ohayo gozai masu!!" (good morning) as a departing gift as I went down the stairs.
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