Originally Posted by
joejones
When I hear stories like this I honestly wonder whether I live in the same country as these other people do. Perhaps this sort of thing was more common 20 or 30 years ago, but I can't imagine that anyone of room-temperature intelligence is still stuck in the mindset that foreigners don't speak Japanese, especially given all the Japanese-speaking foreigners who appear on TV these days.
Have to agree with this. The overwhelming emotion I get when I speak Japanese to someone who doesn't know me is "thank kami-sama for that, now I don't have to dredge up the half-dozen long forgotten English phrases I learnt in high school". I have never had someone refuse to speak Japanese to me or not realise I was speaking Japanese to them. I'm not doubting it happens, it has just never happened to me.
As for the OP's plastic bag problem I believe the magic words are ”シールだけ”. Works for me but ymmv.