Wednesday, April 29, 2009

irashaimasse konbanwa

One of the things you will immediately notice upon arriving in Japan is that everywhere you go, whichever place, shop or office you enter, you are welcomed with "irashaimasse". Initially it sounds great. Wow, so much education, so much attention to the client, such a good level of service. But soon you realize that it is just a formula which workers (especially in shops and restaurants) will repeat indefinitely as long as someone walks through the door. In reality they don't care about you, they have been told from above that that's the way to welcome guests, and so they do. Irashaimasse konbanwa. Enter a restaurant where 5 waiters are attending, and you will hear it 5 times in the space of a few seconds.

We are the robots springs to mind!


But settle down, as I said, they don't really care about you. You realize that straight after, as they come to your table and recite another formula, always with a good smile or polite manner, but strictly no eyes contact, they just say what they have to say and walk off. Whether you understand or not is not their concern, their concern is to say what they have been told to say.
If you don't understand it's your own fault for not speaking Japanese you smuck.

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