How to avoid being a "Creep" as a foreigner in Japan?

This is something I have been wondering for a while now as I recently found a chamber where Japanese speak openly in regards to foreigners.<br><br>So, basically, in one of the comments that I read yesterday, someone said that "The creepy thing about foreigners is that they talk to a complete stranger for no reason and are excessively polite."<br><br>That really made me question myself as an American who just moved to Japan. I travel and commuted a lot between Tokyo and Osaka. It's really common to be on the shinkasen and have other Japanese approach you and start conversation. I've allocated how a lot of Japanese have positive opinions of foreigners. I want to keep it that way for obvious reasons :). <br><br>So, if a Japanese person approaches me and begins speaking to me in Japanese, I don't see the extra effort in speaking back in Japanese as much as I can. But, what I'm wondering is, should I stop approaching Japanese strangers and politely ask for directions? Should I just ignore them and avoid talking to them completely? I get how approaching a stranger and talking to them without a reason could be seen as creepy- but I thought that kind of thinking was frowned upon and frowned upon by a lot of people.