Oh, Nihonjins

Although Japan has won me over in many aspects, I'm going to go on a little rant today because in the past week, I've been reminded of how ridiculously annoying Nihonjin can be.

* After lunch today, my family went to a green tea cafe for dessert. My brother ordered a huge shaved ice, and I ordered a cake & tea set to share with my grandmother. When my brother's gigantic shaved ice arrived, it came with ONE spoon. [THIS ANNOYS ME TO NO END. Recently I went to another cafe with my grandmother where we ordered a sweet red bean soup dessert and they also gave us only one spoon and when I asked for another one, they said "deki nai," which means "it is impossible." It is NOT impossible to give me another spoon you freaking robotic person.] Then upon realizing that there were three of us, the waitress made us order another dessert (one item per customer) despite the fact that the desserts that had arrived were already more than enough for the three of us and already cost $25. Then when I asked for a couple more spoons, she glared at me. [F'ing Japan!]

* I had to run home in the rain to take my brother to the train station for the airport. It was raining quite hard at the time. I happened to be walking the opposite way from a lot of people. And all of these people walking straight toward me were walking in the CENTER of a very small sidewalk, taking up all the space and making it virtually impossible for me to continue walking. FYI, in Japan, you are supposed to walk on the left side of the sidewalk and I was doing my part by trying to walk as left as possible against the buildings and shrubs. Even after one guy saw me walking towards him, he refused to walk on his left side (there was at least a foot of leeway for him), so that I had to stop and flatten myself against the wall so he could pass by on his merry little way in the center of the sidewalk. The woman behind him also walked in the center of the sidewalk and showed no intention to move to the left. So finally I just walked straight into them and bumped their umbrellas with mine and muttered "move." I HATE it when people hog the sidewalk, which happens ALL the time in Tokyo. [F'ing Japan!]

* In Kyoto at Nijo Castle, there were outdoor foodstands selling Japanese snacks. We ordered an order of "dango" which is little round balls of mochi on a stick, dipped in a sweet sticky soy syrup. The stand we went to took frozen mochi on sticks, grilled them on a gas grill, then submerged them in the syrup. After we ate one order, my brother wanted more dango, but he didn't like the sweet soy syrup and instead wanted just the plain mochi on a stick. The woman cooking the mochi had about 12 sticks of freshly grilled mochi sticks in front of her, which she was about to put into the vat of syrup. I asked her if we could have one order without syrup and she tossed me a look, brushed her hand in the air to indicate "no" or "go away" and said "nai," which in Japanese is kind of rude because it literally means "no," but it's being said in non-formal language and you should always use formal/polite language when talking to customers. She was SO flippant about it that I wanted to smack her, not to mention: WHY can't she just sell us the freaking mochi without the syrup?? [F'ing Japan!]

* My brother just called me from the airport to tell me the ticket counter agent made him pay $100 for overweight luggage, AND refused to let him move around the contents of his luggage so that he could take one as a carry-on. [F'ing Japan!]

I realize that these incidents, in and of themselves, don't sound that bad. But when you live in Japan and experience things like this every day, the hate/anger/frustration/annoyance toward Japan and the Nihonjin that perpetuate passive aggression or the "it is impossible" mentality adds up little by little until at one point you just need to RANT RANT RANT about the INANITY that is life in Japan.

Does ranting make me feel better? Why yes it does, a teeny bit.