So I have been in japan for several days now. However my first day left me a little uncomfortable. I was eating in Omoide Yokocho at a small restaurant.
The lady served me a small side dish before eating (Looked like either egg or tofu). Me knowing very little japanese and being nervous trying to speak for the first time in japan said “Tamago desu ka?”.
Then the employees laughed hysterically as well as a customer. I just felt really embarrassed, and they proceeded to say tofu and continued laughing. Then they laughed at my mother who was struggling to use chopsticks. (She has carpal tunnel)
Then in another restaurant the waiter completely ignored us pretty much. Didn’t say any of the normal stuff. I tried my best with “itadakimasu” and “gochisousama deshite”. But through and through, no welcome in, very standoff ish. No politeness at all.
To clarify though. Every other interaction has been wonderful except for the first day. Everyone friendly, helpful with japanese, polite, and has made it a really exceptional trip. I just cant understand what happened with the first day.
If anyone has any idea what exactly they were laughing or why this situation came about please let me know. Still afraid I am going to say something incredibly stupid.
4 comments
First, you don’t know the social norms. Embrace it, and if someone finds something you do amusing isn’t that a good thing? I like to be amused. As long as you’re not being abrasive or disrespectful who cares. Ignorance is only bad when coupled with arrogance.
Second, Shinjuku is a fairly dirty place with less refined people. Expect the same when you visit Osaka (maybe too blunt – but also true). Most places people are fairly proper/polite.
Finally, it can be difficult to get the attention of staff at restaurants here at times. Many types of restaurants expect you to shout out sumimasen. The other possibility… many restaurants have a button at the table you’re supposed to press to call for service. It’s possible they were expecting you to use that.
Those restaurants can be a hit or miss. They are personally owned establishments that have their regular customers and rules. It’s normal for the owners to be drinking with the customers, talking about things they want to talk about and catering to first timers can become optional. They don’t care about (or even do not want) new customers
I’m sorry to hear about that. Omoide Yokocho is historically super ghetto food court that used to be called “piss street” for whatever reasons, so I won’t expect the best of whatever there. I indeed do like that place but I certainly won’t look for nice services (not that I’ve been experienced negative stuff being native though). Places can be friendly but in domestic and rough manner, or else just straight up stubborn. I think many town in most of and countries has that sort of corner in map. But I don’t expect tourists to be able to pick up on that, especially when the country is known for hospitality or politeness for whatever reasons. I’d say that was a sheer bad luck.
I really hope you and your mother can enjoy positive experience before you leave. r/JapanTravel or r/tokyo must have pretty good recommendations, if you had a time to check
Japanese here. Sorry to hear that. Many Japanese have a stereotype that foreigners cannot use chopsticks, so when they saw her using chopsticks, they probably remembered the stereotype and thought the stereotype was true and laughed. I know it is an offensive thing but please do not take it seriously. They are just biased by TV.