Recently I (35M, long-time Tokyo resident) decided to shave about a year’s worth of beard growth. The following day I showed up to the gym like I usually do, spent a couple of hours, and then headed home. On the way out the door, the staff mentioned how different I looked and gave me tons of free samples for some high-protein food. Confused but thankful, I departed toward home.
When I got home, my wife told me she got a call, about 10 minutes after I left home, from a gym staff who was “concerned” that someone had stolen my membership card and was currently using it. She explained it was me and I had just shaved. It turns out all the free stuff was apology-swag for not recognizing me.
My only thought is, why did the gym call my wife instead of me?! 😂
28 comments
Your title should be:
“After shaving beard, gym called my wife to ask if _handsome_ imposter was using my membership card”
Or that’s how she might’ve relayed it to you. 😉
They called your wife instead of you because if you’re an imposter, you’re probably not going to say “yes I’m an imposter” when asked, are you?
This is nice. The staff are looking out for you! I wonder what would if they encountered a bearded imposter though. Beard, check; gaijin, check. Aye, let him in.
> My only thought is, why did the gym call my wife instead of me?!
It might have been a roundabout way of “I think your husband allowed his friend to use his membership card… please speak to him so he doesn’t do it again.”
Well to be fair, depending on how thick your beard was, with or without can change someones image completely so I cant blame them lol
Reminds me of when I shaved and cut my hair when I was teaching high school (I usually have a medium length beard and hair past my shoulders). When I came in on Monday they thought that I had left the job and a new teacher was hired in my place. Told them it was me and everyone was just “えええええええええええええええ？！” even my JTE teacher who knew I was getting trimmed lol
They may have phoned your wife to avoid the embarrassment of having you answer the phone in front of them? They probably didn’t expect your wife to tell you lol.
that’s so hilarious I would troll them every time lol
This is very Japanlife.
Hahaha!! The title alone was a beer spit! Thank you.
> My only thought is, why did the gym call my wife instead of me?!
I don’t know if you’re foreign and your wife is Japanese, but it wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve heard of people treating a western husband as another one of the Japanese wife’s children. Not saying that’s your relationship, but it’s a bit sad that it’s a common enough situation that it’s the default assumption for some people.
Because waifu knows best!
> My only thought is, why did the gym call my wife instead of me?!
​
Gym Staff: Hello imposter, are you u/KernalSunflower.
Clearly an Imposter: Yes.
Gym Staff: Okay,…no worries.
or
Gym Staff: Hey! who are you?
u/KernalSunflower: Its me, your member….how rude!
Why does the gym bro know your wife’s number ??????
Probably just in case it actually was you
Sounds nice.
1. They were looking out for you.
2. They gave you free samples.
3. They didn’t want to bother YOU so decided to bother your wife instead.
WIN-WIN-WIN
Lol I bet they thought you’d lent your card to someone.
Oh I thought after shaving a beard, you met a JK and brought her home.
That’s a beauty of a story. Thanks for the laugh.
Wow all this time i thought the Japanese ladies who hit on me thought i was handsome, turns out they are all face blind
Go back with a fake beard just to fuck with them
Years ago I shaved off my beard. I was working in a bookstore at the time, the rest of the staff were (mostly older) women. Only one of them noticed halfway through the first day. One of them didn’t notice for about two weeks. I claim that as my free pass to never feel bad for not commenting when a woman has changed her hair.
Oh my god, oh my god – when I worked at a normal gym I was tasked with calling English speaking people if someone thought there was an imposter.
It was seriously 33% beard shaving, 33% head shaving and 33% glasses.
I mean sometimes people might share cards but it’s actually really rare and every time I was asked to call I was like… oh jeebus… here we go again.
Edit: just to mention, the phone calls never went poorly. Like seriously you got the full range of utter confusion to absolute laughter. But nobody was ever bothered.
That’s hilarious
Costco never called my wife when I went clean shaven or lent my card to my friend. Don’t worry folks, I stopped lending my card to that freeloader years ago.
To avoid the awkward cause they weren’t sure if that was yku
LOL, this made me laugh so hard and also typical Japanese XD
that’s a nice costumer service, my boss also do this stuff where if we did something or made the costumer wait too long for the food to arrived like more than 30 mins.
She will also give small icecream and the food that was made too long she will make it free since its not worth taking money out of it when we made you wait there for 40 mins for a simple 3 mins food that can be done
That’s hilarious. Thanks for sharing.