a trip to the conbini store (convenient store, circle-k)

after a quick trot down to the corner and jog across the busy street, i’m greeted by a wall of warm air and the nasal Japanese greetings from the cashiers behind the counter (the nasal voice is customary and required of people in the position of service to others, like cashiers and greeters/hosts at resturaunts and stores...). I quickly bow my head and smile (not having a clue as to what they said) and I make my way to the hot drinks and breads. after grabbing a few things, i walk up to the cashier… another nasal greeting and some additional phrases as she rings up my hot green tea and bread—430 yen… that’s about $4.30 in US currency. I rummage through a bunch of coins in my pockets and pull out 500 yen (i’ve got the yen down now) and place it in the plate (you never hand money directly to the cashier).

she grabs the yen and is talking in that nasal voice the whole time as she grabs the change… my bro says that they are explaining what they are doing with your money, you know, “I’m taking your money, you gave me this much, you get this much back…” and so on. she places the money and receipt in my hand and I am off, back to the house.

who would know that a solo trip to the circle-k down the street in the mornings would prove to be such a fun adventure to me :)

now, here are a few things that are different about the service here in japan compared to the service in america. in america, we have the saying “the customer is always right.” in japan, they say this saying too. but when you translate their saying from japanese to english, it literally means “the customer is god.” and let me tell you, they take this to heart, and they will do anything to satisfy the customer. I could go so much further into this, but this is getting long. I’ll talk more of this later.

time for the list of lessons learned!
-the automatic doors are a little more delayed and slower than back home… I have walked straight into two because of this reason.
-another door had my face smashed into it because of its being semi-automatic… you have to push a button that’s on the door…I’m telling you, the button is disguised as a part of the door.
-it’s very difficult to tell the difference between the guys and girls clothing department

oh ya, this is random, but I had a dream that I was covered in cactus last night… weird.

anyway, hooroo for now!