Job Discussion Forums

[bluefrog]

I went to a concert the other day. I'd already paid over �7,000 for the ticket and as usual I get in the door and the staff ask for the required �500 drink ticket fee. "You can't refuse" I was told.
It's not enough that these venue owners make tons of money off the ticket sale, they charge vendors ridiculous rental fees which in turn gets passed on to the concert goers. Frustrating!

[matador]

Hmmm. annoying? Not really just kind of...er...I don't know what the word is.

1. Having gone into my 7/11 for 2 years and the staff still don`t offer any sign of recognizing me, they just follow their robotic customer service.

2. My neighbor (hmm, similarities to no. 1) just shuffles past me everyday even though we have lived next to each other for ...2 years!

...heaven forbid there should be any kind of spontaneous unscripted communication! Arrrrrrgh!!

[Eva Pilot]

[Brooks]

yes, but Eva, do you live in western Japan?
If so, that would explain it.
I live in Kanto and I get robotic service at Family Mart.

[Eva Pilot]

[taffer]

This whole greeting other foreigners thing needs to be laid to rest now. Look, if I pass you and you sense that I am greetable, then by all means, GREET THE H--- out of me. But if you see that someone doesn't look receptive to it, then do as you would do back home, just amble on forward with the thought, gee, not too friendly there, Mr. Humbug, and be on your way! It really doesn't matter at ALL whether someone is friendly enough to greet you/ acknowledge you. It has something to do with, if he isn't all that friendly then why would you care to know him anyway?!

As far as the OP is concerned...I can not for the life of me get the idea of entering or leaving my office and having to say hello or goodbye each time. Coworkers coming into a rather large space and offering greetings to furniture...that strikes me as borderline sociopathy. I matter so much that my very presence is to be heralded...

[AndyH]

I had to get used to "unfriendly gaijin" when I moved from rural Hokkaido, where foreigners are scarce, to Greater Tokyo, where they're a dime a dozen. At first, I thought it was very rude not to return a greeting or make eye contact, but after awhile, it was something I became accustomed to.

To be honest, the thing that most annoyed me when I lived in Japan were other foreigners. The worst seemed to be the young people, fresh out of university and overseas for the first time, with the idea that japan was their personal playground.

[Yawarakaijin]

[Kilgore Trout]

I do not thrive on the acknowledgement of others concerning my existence.

However, what bothers me the most is the overwhelming expat smugness that comes with the majority of these people teaching?? in these silly language schools (eikaiwas) when most are geeks that simply come here looking for women who might actually give them the time of day.

It never ceases to amaze me who some of the women here will deem a "playboy" type. Talk about skewed perception.

However, the most appalling thing I see is the utter lack of critical and analytical thinking along with the lack of application of logic to fairly normal situations across the board.

If it were just the Japanese, I would think it was probably cultural, but most of the people coming here for financial purposes or hunting women exercise a less than adequate sense of judgment in a multitude of rather general situations, and it gets disgusting at some point.

[Sweetsee]

What is up with people sitting in priority seats on trains who have no business being there, hiding behind their eyelids and earphones? The other day a woman with crutches and a leg cast was visibly annoyed at not being offered a seat by these creatures. Some will say that all you have to do is ask them to move. It really is pathetic.

[chollimaspeed]

[Sweetsee]

I did not offer my seat, canuck, due to the fact that I was not occupying one. In fact, I was standing with my 6-year-old by my side and my 15-month-old in my arms. Though, in the rare instances when I do occupy a seat, I always offer it to those in need.

[wabisabi365]

chollimaspeed is Canuck? What happened to all the eye-rolls?

[chollimaspeed]

[Sweetsee]

A poster who picks peoples' posts apart, rather than simply responding to the threads.