Knowing your place in the tribe

It's really a love hate relationship with the service industry here. The relentless and high-pitched welcome to each shop becomes a fittingly chaotic soundtrack to city life. Although I no longer really hear it, on a busy day the welcoming doesn't stop and like an inexperienced assistant not knowing when to leave you alone - the cries of 'irrashiemase' and 'dozo' wear thin. It's perhaps akin to the 'have a nice day' syndrome in America. Being from Scotland though, this hyper-friendly service is as much suspicious as it is culture shock.

I think that now, because I am accustomed to the expensive fruit, punctual trains, raw horsemeat and businessmen pissing on the street, I have simply come to accept what is after all, a very civilised way to being treated.

What I currently find difficult is the apparent ignorant customer. again, the opposite of the chatty west where any excuse to converse is often taken. normal behaviour suddenly frowns and turns cold when served by deliriously happy waiters. In Scotland, of course, this is almost the opposite of traditional service but in Japan everyone is very much aware of his or her position and this does not apply only to business hierarchy: in the home, at the shops, socially. people know their place.

if you happen to be in the service industry here you must simply smile, grit your teeth and prepare for lack of any acknowledgement, emotion or recognition: Just serve the bloody food.

It perhaps helps explain why robots and vending machines are such a high priority for the Japanese. They usually look so uncomfortable when confronted with contact and familiarity, never mind confrontation.