Gaijin Shopping Etiquette Shocker

[Mulboyne]

These two blokes visited this shop in Kyoto. Their visit caused something of a stir and warranted a mention on the shop's blog. They tried on a few clothes which was cause for concern because the fitting rooms were a bit small. They also wandered around the shop barefoot and had a disconcerting habit of showing their naked torsos when they were changing T-shirts. The real horror, though, came when they paid:



They are, nevertheless, welcome back any time.

[craxican]

i dont really see what the problem is with that, them showing their stomachs is not that big of deal, but i guess to j-ppl it is. bout the moneys, big deal. money is money. but i wonder how long it took for the shop keepers to confront them about it.

[Ke11iente]

You've got to be kidding me.....

I think I will start keeping my money inside my shoes from now on. I'd like to see the look on the shop girls' face when I pull a sweaty wad of notes out my sock. Preferably a sock with a big hole in the toe.

[omae mona]

I don't think the blog entry was intended as a complaint (except perhaps as a mock complaint). It ends with them saying foreigners are cool. I think the implication is that they're jealous of people who don't feel constrained by Japanese societal norms.

[james]

bout the moneys, big deal. money is money. but i wonder how long it took for the shop keepers to confront them about it.

You've got to be kidding me.....

gonna disagree with you both and i think that attitude kinda sucks to be honest.

not trying to be preachy, but tij. the cultural norms here are different and should be respected. sure, maybe where you come from that's normal and it's not a big deal but here it's extremely rude.

[Charles]

not trying to be preachy, but tij. the cultural norms here are different and should be respected. sure, maybe where you come from that's normal and it's not a big deal but here it's extremely rude.

I understand perfectly. This reminds me of the new-age evangelist Terry Cole Whittaker, I used to see her on TV when I moved to Los Angeles in the early 1980s. She was famous for her lectures on money, in one of them, she told people to find all their cash and coins they carried, no matter whether it was in their pockets, wallet, or purse, whatever. Now look at how you carried it. Do you keep your bills nicely sorted by denomination, flattened and neat in a nice wallet? Or do you keep your bills crumpled up in a wad in your pocket? She asserted your approach to handling your money was representative of your approach towards all things in life. If you handle your money in a slovenly manner, you probably treat everyone and everything just as poorly. If you have no respect for money, you have no respect for anything.

[baka tono]

I actually sort my bills by denomination and Id swear to it on a gold brick. I had no idea there are actually people endorsing this I thought I was just being practical.

[Adhesive]

I remember when I first visited Japan when I was 18 and decided to go shirtless in Nara after a game of pop-fly with my friends in the sweltering August heat. The dirty stares I got were not easily ignored. My friends finally convinced me to thrown on my wife-beater, but I still got stares. I wouldn't go shirtless now, but I didn't really understand the culture then, and I was used to going shirtless in California. I just couldn't stand the humidity.

[craxican]

I remember when I first visited Japan when I was 18 and decided to go shirtless in Nara after a game of pop-fly with my friends in the sweltering August heat. The dirty stares I got were not easily ignored. My friends finally convinced me to thrown on my wife-beater, but I still got stares. I wouldn't go shirtless now, but I didn't really understand the culture then, and I was used to going shirtless in California. I just couldn't stand the humidity.

word on that. im from cali too and everyday in the summer i never wear shirts. i didnt wear a shirt in tokyo one time and i got endless stares of stupidity. now i wont take off my shirt in japan.

but for the moneys, big deal. take the money, ring me up, and bye bye.
if you dont like the way my money looks, just give me my stuffs for free then.

[dimwit]

I love paying the bank my wealth and city taxes in extremely nasty wads of 1000 yen notes. It's my way of showing my love.

[Charles]

I love paying the bank my wealth and city taxes in extremely nasty wads of 1000 yen notes. It's my way of showing my love.

I think I've heard this story before.

[eighty5er]

In other countries it's not considered faux pa to hand a cashier frumpled/dirty money, but then the staff usually doesn't hand back your money neatly sorted and straightened and stacked on the receipt in your hand with a smile to boot.

So it goes both ways yeah.

[Hokuto-shinken]

I don`t think so, I think the two boys are very rude and have to repect for other people. Typical Gaijin attitude.

[Mulboyne]

...I think the two boy are very rude and have to repect for other people. Typical Gaijin attitude.

They weren't rude and, as omae mona pointed out, the shop staff didn't really think they were rude either. They took a picture because they quite enjoyed having them come in. I was more interested in the attention given to the crumpled money given that I've handed over some unsightly cash in my time.

[Hokuto-shinken]

Yes, I read the blog. I think the staff were just amazed how different these two people acted, but many Japanese people seem to have two faces, one at work and one at home. Maybe if it were a personal blog they would not be so kind, instead of acting like they admire them for having such a free will, they would have probably wrote about 2 men with no manners.

I guess not everywhere, but where I come from it is bad manners to act like they did, maybe where they are from it is ok to act like that. I think when travelling to another country you should try your best to respect other cultural differences. I guess we are all entitled to our own opinions, mine is that I believe they were rude, I have seen worse though.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I wouldn't say they were being rude if they were totally ignorant about how to act.

By the way, I think unless you are by the beach or in a park, it's pretty low class to walk around shirtless in the US too. But maybe that's just my Southern roots. We pretty much looked at that as redneck behavior where I come from.

[omae mona]

I guess not everywhere, but where I come from it is bad manners to act like they did, maybe where they are from it is ok to act like that. I think when travelling to another country you should try your best to respect other cultural differences. I guess we are all entitled to our own opinions, mine is that I believe they were rude, I have seen worse though.

I think it's difficult to call somebody rude when they are completely oblivious to what is socially acceptable. It's a lot to ask of short-term visitors to Japan to study ahead of time. Some people can make up for it by using their powers of observation to assess what's going on around them and imitate. Other people simply don't notice that they're sticking out like a sore thumb.

I agree people should try to respect cultural differences as you say. But many people just don't have the skills or resources to figure it out in a short period of time.

I think many Japanese people realize that "polite" and "rude" are concepts that are specific to each culture. That's why the store owners were bemused, but not offended, by the foreigners' visit. Sometimes I think Westerners are more prone to thinking that their own concept of right and wrong, or polite and rude, should be universally shared.

[dimwit]

Having travelled in what was then Czechoslovaka in the late 1980's and beening handed Karl Kash every time I made a transaction, I felt dirty just handling the stuff. It had the texture which was somewhere between a used condom and rotten soggy cardboard. And it smelt of what I never been able to figure out, except I don't ever want to smell it again.

Some Japanese especially the older and more conservative seem to be hypersensitive about the appearance of money. Most young people couldn't care or would joke about.

[Charles]

I think it's difficult to call somebody rude when they are completely oblivious to what is socially acceptable.

Just because you don't know you're rude, doesn't mean you aren't rude.

[james]

Just because you don't know you're rude, doesn't mean you aren't rude.

agreed. it may not be intentional but it is still rude. it doesn't even have to be cross cultural either. i worked in the service industry throughout high school and university and met a lot of local people who were just too stupid and ignorant to know that they were coming across as completely rude asses. doesn't change the fact that that's what they were.

the difference of course being that anyone with half a clue will attempt to acclimate and correct unacceptable behaviour.

as for the issue of "It's a lot to ask of short-term visitors to Japan to study ahead of time."..

is it? not saying i would expect anyone who's gonna be here for a few weeks to know all the ins and outs of the culture by any means, but a quick flip thrrough any number of travel guides will likely give some basic info in this regard and doesn't require much effort or investment of time.

[eighty5er]

The worst thing in the world for me, is if people don't like me (for justified reasons). Not that I want to be "popular", I just hate it if I'm the cause of someones discomfort. It's the one thing that can really get me down, when people are pissed off about my behavior. In Japan, I made a few fuckups in front of Japanese people and I really felt bad/embarrassed about it.

So, in my head it just doesn't compute how people can go to Japan, act the fool so to say and not give a damn.

On the other side, I want to say that I find the Shaun Hughes video of licking stuff hilarious. I'm not gonna beat around the bush it cracks me up. Especially when he thanks someone in Japanese with an uber gay English accent.

[omae mona]

agreed. it may not be intentional but it is still rude.

Ok, you guys can call it whatever you like. But I personally have a hard time getting upset at this kind of "rudeness". I think those of us who have been here long-term can probably remember back far enough to a time when we commited a faux pas ourselves.

the difference of course being that anyone with half a clue will attempt to acclimate and correct unacceptable behaviour.

Yes, but I don't have enough energy to harbor a grudge against everybody who doesn't have half a clue. There are too many of them, self included.

as for the issue of "It's a lot to ask of short-term visitors to Japan to study ahead of time."..

is it? not saying i would expect anyone who's gonna be here for a few weeks to know all the ins and outs of the culture by any means, but a quick flip thrrough any number of travel guides will likely give some basic info in this regard and doesn't require much effort or investment of time.

I will gladly stand corrected, but I'd be very surprised to find a travel guide that highlights the importance of keeping your cash unwrinkled and not walking around barefoot in stores.