Japanese Peculiarities #1

Well, this isn’t really the first peculiarity I have noted while living here in Japan, but this is the first time it occurred to me to reveal and document these instances in any sort of order. Am quite slow at times.

Anyway. So the story goes…

On Friday, I was sitting in front of my computer from sun up to sun down. Late morning came and the doorbell rang. Not expecting anyone to stop by, this was quite a surprise. Fortunately, my sister-in-law recently sent a webcam as birthday gift, which ensures that I now sit in front of the computer adequately clothed and even now consistently bra’d. On this day, this was a help indeed.

Skipping speaking into the intercom as I noted that my guests were Japanese and I hardly felt like a conversation in broken English on said device, I went straight to open the door. After confirming who I was, the man and woman introduced themselves as being from the water company. Several months ago, we had paid the same bill twice in one month. We had been sent a notice a while back telling us to have someone who speaks Japanese call their office to fix the problem. This project was given to KH, who of course let it slide to the bottom of his pile at work. Thank goodness in Japan, they realize that my husband may just never take care of it. These two had come to pay me. At my front door. Pulling out the exact yen… down to the penny yen and handing it over to my hot little hands.

Now that kind of service, my dear friends, is something you ain’t never gonna’ see in America.