T.I.J. (This is Japan)

[Buraku]

"Suuugoi atsui" (no tatemae required!)

debu theme

Change of theme

and so it is

[tetsujin gaijin]

Why do the Japanese insist on wrapping everything to an obscene amount. Ordered a burger and a coke and they came back to me packed in three bags. 1 for the coke, 1 for the burger and the coke , and a bag for the bag that had the burger and coke in it.

It's the complete opposite here in the US. When you buy something here, now the common response is "do you want a bag?" Companies are doing to save money, not to mention that it helps the environment, but that's not their motivation. Anyway, a lot of times I answer "no, I don't need a bag" because I am only buying one or two items. It's actually kind of nice.

It has always struck me as kind of funny that Japan over-wraps things (to a western pov). While I certainly understand the cultural reasons for doing this, you would think a country that has to pay other countries to take its garbage would think twice about it.

But the real funny thing is, and I guess this make me somewhat of a hypocrite, that I hope they continue wrapping things. It's one of the things that makes Japan Japan. But there have been times when I have been in a hurry I wanted the shop keeper to just chuck my item in a bag and not wrap it.

[maninjapan]

My only real gripe about Japan - ok two if you include ignorance - is why people put up with so much sh*t going down. Politicians taking bungs, trains over packed in the evenings, dodgy buildings, absurdly high prices for occasional things.

[Currawong]

Why, in God's name my wife's family gets the shits when I forget to replace an empty toilet paper roll, when BOTH the damn toilets are fully electric! I've been in so many houses in Japan which have electric toilets which noone ever uses.

The whistling comment reminds me of the numerous myths about life my wife had which I hammered out of her. Her: "In Japan we believe...<insert bullshit myth>." Me (who's family were scientists and I studied religion and history): "That's actually not true, let me show you..." Gah-factor.

I found out why though that it's tradtitional to receive meals of a zillion small dishes - apparently the ideal meal in Japanese culture has 31 different ingredients. Why in God's name don't all Japanese families have dishwashers? They are THE ultimate home-life stress-reduction tool. The bench-top ones here are brilliant as well, and very reasonably priced.

Why with all the tech does everyone pay in cash instead of having EFT? Ok, i know now that the Japanese value actual physical currency - good on them, as 99.999999% of money in the world doesn't exist.

[Gilligan]

I just saw a mother -- she was probably in her early 40's -- with her daughter, who was probably in junior high school, and the mother had on a fluorescent yellow t-shirt that said "F*CK MILK GOT POT?" (without the asterisk, of course) written in large bold lettering across the front.

[Ketou]

It has always struck me as kind of funny that Japan over-wraps things (to a western pov). While I certainly understand the cultural reasons for doing this, you would think a country that has to pay other countries to take its garbage would think twice about it.

Your doing better than me! What are the cultural reasons for overwrapping things?

[Greji]

I just saw a mother -- she was probably in her early 40's -- with her daughter, who was probably in junior high school, and the mother had on a fluorescent yellow t-shirt that said "F*CK MILK GOT POT?" (without the asterisk, of course) written in large bold lettering across the front.

Did you get her phone number and if so, could you send it to me?

[flotsam]

so it said what, FCK MILK GOT POT?
may as well keep the asterisk in, in cases like this. at least you can understand there's a letter missing and read it as "FUCK". speaking of which, it's a nice morning folks. rise and shine. get out of your respective whoresacks and do some knee bends. both my girls are asleep at the moment, but will be horny as a monoceros when i go wake them up. they share the same pants drawer.

[firefly]

Heh, I saw a cute, petite Japanese girl wearing a nicely made professional t-shirt saying "does it better in the bottom".

I wanted to ask her if she knew what it meant. At the same time, I kind of didn't.

[canman]

Wanted to do a little early morning banking, went to the university early, thought great no students can get into the machine with no waiting time, get to the machine, and what do you know, it doesn't open until 9:00am. What a country, or maybe its just up here in the sticks, but bank machines opening at 9:00am. I also notice that this particular machine closes at 6:00pm.

[GuyJean]

Wanted to do a little early morning banking, went to the university early, thought great no students can get into the machine with no waiting time, get to the machine, and what do you know, it doesn't open until 9:00am. What a country, or maybe its just up here in the sticks, but bank machines opening at 9:00am. I also notice that this particular machine closes at 6:00pm.

Nope.. It's in the city as well, with some machines.. My bank charges me to withdraw money during the weekends too, I just found out..

Buy a safe at home. It's cheaper and easier to manage your money at about the same interest.

GJ

[Captain Japan]

[quote="GuyJean"]Nope.. It's in the city as well, with some machines.. My bank charges me to withdraw money during the weekends too, I just found out..

Buy a safe at home. It's cheaper and easier to manage your money at about the same interest. ]
Shinsei offers free use of most ATMs in Japan. But access after 6PM (I think) on weekends at non-Shinsei machines is not possible.

This is probably the classic FG complaint. Over the years I've heard the following as possible reasons for the ongoing nonsense: protection of jobs and the reduction of stick-ups. The former being from FGs and the latter coming from Japanese. Both are ludicrous. Has anyone figured out the real reason why ATMs have hours of operation?

I don't read about excavator robberies anymore. Who knows, the initial impetus for those could have been some kind of a rebellion.

[IkemenTommy]

[Jack]

I asked that question and I was told that it's for safety reasons. Presumably it's safer to withdraw money when there are lots of people around because J-ATMs don't have a withdrawal limit like in most western countries. For instance banks in Canada put a daily maximum withdrawal limit of $1,000 whereas in Japan I think you can withdraw the equivalent of $20,000 or more at one shot if you have the cash in your account. So the hours of operation is to prevent "cardjacking" like it happens around here.

I hear that Citibank doesn't charge a fee to use their ATMs and many of them are now open 24 hours.

[Jack]

My T.I.J. comment is how people always have change for ichi man yen. No matter where you go and what you buy, hand them a $100 bill and they give you change. They always have change in Japan even in taxis. In US and Canada you'd be lucky to find anyone willing to take a C note and if they are willing to take it they probably would not have change unless your purchase if $75 or more. I had taxi drivers break 10,000 yen for a 660 yen ride.

[IkemenTommy]

Does anyone know why they need to blast the sirens on the emergency vehicle during the dead middle of the night when the streets are completely empty? This is always the great mystery to me.

[dimwit]

Does anyone know why they need to blast the sirens on the emergency vehicle during the dead middle of the night when the streets are completely empty? This is always the great mystery to me.

Or for that matter when they are traveling back to the station after the emergency is over. I have often charitably assumed that they use the sirens to compete with the noise of the uyoku and pachino/love hotel speaker trucks.

[6810]

I asked that question and I was told that it's for safety reasons. Presumably it's safer to withdraw money when there are lots of people around because J-ATMs don't have a withdrawal limit like in most western countries. For instance banks in Canada put a daily maximum withdrawal limit of $1,000 whereas in Japan I think you can withdraw the equivalent of $20,000 or more at one shot if you have the cash in your account. So the hours of operation is to prevent "cardjacking" like it happens around here.

Wrong. Japanese ATMs generally have a 500,000 yen/day withdrawal limit. TO find out what the ATM/Bank's limit is, just ask the bank.

What's more, aside from the initial shock, the J-ATM system is not that hard or inconvenient. Just do things like take out all your pay in one hit and keep it at home. If you can't manage your own money, that's your problem.

[Oradea]

I have done fuck all research in this field.
It is stunningly clear and visible to me that the simple answer is is:

The ATMs have a better union than the foriegn ATMs, and as such, are afforded decent working hours.

[Captain Japan]

If you can't manage your own money, that's your problem.

That completely misses the point. A service is not being delivered. If a slug of a company like McDonald's can stay open between the lunch and dinner rushes then the banks can operate ATMs at night. For a tech comparison, look at DoCoMo. They offer all kinds of hopelessly lame services that can't possibly make money in hopes of keeping their customers. Round-the-clock ATM service is not lame. The banks are colluding because they think they can save on costs. The bottom line: total bullshit. Competition is dead.

[6810]

I don't think it's a complete miss. Part of it stems from social-cultural habits surrounding money management.

I'm not getting all Nihinjinron here, but I think that in addition to what you say, underlying the ATM issue is a kind of - "well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Convenience stores are increasingly taking up the slack from banks who do not provide services 24/7.

[canman]

I totally agree with the Captain. Japan keeps telling us how they are forward thinking and that they want to internationalize their society, and they want a gazillion foreigners to come and visit. But if you can't even find a damn bank machine that will take your "foreign bank card" or a machine working past 8:00pm, or before 9:00 am, then don't spout all this shit.
I had another run in with my bank, just another example of how backward things are here in Japan. For Christmas my Mom went to her little inaka branch of the Bank of Montreal and bought me and my family money orders. She had the money exchanged and the order was made through Mizuho bank. I took then to the local bank which has a working arrangement with Mizuho, and was told that there would be a handling fee. I asked why and was told that they had to contact the bank in Canada and that cost money. I explained to them that the money order was purchased from Mizuho bank, and that they didn't need to contact the bank in Canada. But they said no no, we must. Unluckily my Mom had bought four seperate money orders, one in each of our names, which meant that there would be for seperate charges, Y1500 per. The kids money order was for Y5000 so there goes 30% of the money. A few days later we get a call from the bank telling us that Mizuho bank also wants a service charge of Y2500 per money order, yes that's right a Y5000 money order and the service charge was Y4000. If I had known that I would have returned them to my Mom and told her just to forget about it. Luckily my wife and I are good customers, and my wife called and complained, the bank decided to pay the other service charge and apologized for the trouble.
But what pisses me off is that my Mom did everything right. She had the money changed into yen. She had it through Mizuho bank, but still they wanted their pound of flesh. And they wonder why nobody wants to use them, pricks.

[amdg]

[American Oyaji]

[amdg]

Exactly! Much easier to track me down via my gaijin card. Anyway, maybe she was new on the job or something and at the time my Japanese wasn't good enough to argue about it.

[6810]

I totally agree with the Captain. Japan keeps telling us how they are forward thinking and that they want to internationalize their society, and they want a gazillion foreigners to come and visit. But if you can't even find a damn bank machine that will take your "foreign bank card" or a machine working past 8:00pm, or before 9:00 am, then don't spout all this shit.
I had another run in with my bank, just another example of how backward things are here in Japan. For Christmas my Mom went to her little inaka branch of the Bank of Montreal and bought me and my family money orders. She had the money exchanged and the order was made through Mizuho bank. I took then to the local bank which has a working arrangement with Mizuho, and was told that there would be a handling fee. I asked why and was told that they had to contact the bank in Canada and that cost money. I explained to them that the money order was purchased from Mizuho bank, and that they didn't need to contact the bank in Canada. But they said no no, we must. Unluckily my Mom had bought four seperate money orders, one in each of our names, which meant that there would be for seperate charges, Y1500 per. The kids money order was for Y5000 so there goes 30% of the money. A few days later we get a call from the bank telling us that Mizuho bank also wants a service charge of Y2500 per money order, yes that's right a Y5000 money order and the service charge was Y4000. If I had known that I would have returned them to my Mom and told her just to forget about it. Luckily my wife and I are good customers, and my wife called and complained, the bank decided to pay the other service charge and apologized for the trouble.
But what pisses me off is that my Mom did everything right. She had the money changed into yen. She had it through Mizuho bank, but still they wanted their pound of flesh. And they wonder why nobody wants to use them, pricks.

And I wonder... did you/original money sender read the fine print? Had it been done, the whole thing might have been avoided.

I often avoid sending small quantities of money OS because of the fees involved. Wait till you have no choice, send large money OR use money you have in an account back home (to which you, once or twice a year, send a large quantity of money to in order to manage your finances).

It's simple money management within an existing system. Not so hard really.

[canman]

If you read my post I said that my Mom sent us the money for Christmas. I didn't have a lot of control over that. I've been in Japan for more than 13 years, and don't have an account at home anymore as I don't plan on living their again. And yes perhaps if she had read the fine print, but when you can send money to almost any other part of the world, without any trouble, you would hope that Japan would be the same.

[dimwit]

If you read my post I said that my Mom sent us the money for Christmas. I didn't have a lot of control over that. I've been in Japan for more than 13 years, and don't have an account at home anymore as I don't plan on living their again. And yes perhaps if she had read the fine print, but when you can send money to almost any other part of the world, without any trouble, you would hope that Japan would be the same.

I know the problem exactly Canman. I have these people from Nigeria who want to send me money but it always requires paying them money to deal with all the money transaction laws.

[Greji]

If you read my post I said that my Mom sent us the money for Christmas. I didn't have a lot of control over that. I've been in Japan for more than 13 years, and don't have an account at home anymore as I don't plan on living their again. And yes perhaps if she had read the fine print, but when you can send money to almost any other part of the world, without any trouble, you would hope that Japan would be the same.

This is not a new thing. The J-banks have always been outrageous on all transactions. Unfortunately, the J-customers just say "shoganai" and pay, instead of raising holy hell over these extra charges.

Postal money orders are the best for those sending from Japan to abroad. They do have a limit of $600.00 US per money order, but they are reasonably cheap (I forget how much) and you can buy several of them at one time if you need to send more than 600 big ones.

A friend of mine ran into the same sort of thing the other day. He had to send $25.00 for some educational costs from Japan to a school in Hawaii and they demanded it be by bank draft only. He went to the bank and they wanted 5,000 yen for a bank draft (this is the standard fee) for 25 clams. He got hot and sent a postal money order and fortunately the school accepted it.

Money orders to Japan are handled the same way. One possibility for your perusal, is that the Post office is with CitiBank. I opened an account at CitiBank in Tokyo and got a bank card for both my daughter and myself. When she went overseas to school she could go to the ATM and draw from the account. I could also go to the post office and make a deposit directly into (or draw from) the CitiBank account using the bank card at the PO ATM (I did not live, or work near a CitiBank outlet, so the PO was benri!

However, I want to be a Japanese banker in my next life!

[Captain Japan]

It's simple money management within an existing system. Not so hard really.

I suppose if Japan wants to continue in its insular world of speciality - which is I guess is the case - that would be fine, but a few months ago I was asked by the Tokyo Gov to provide advice on how to get more tourists to come to Tokyo. One of the things I mentioned was the silly, ridiculous ATM/bank situation. While I can see where one might expect others to adapt to their own system, at the same time I wouldn't expect the results to be anywhere near satisfactory.