I got the most evil stare that I have ever got today. I don't even understand why either…
Anyway, I went off with Steve (who also had to get his money from Head Office) and Paul who I had sent on a mission to find me RAM (PC whiz that he is) in Akihabara. I was gonna meet him there after for food and…stuff. Got the money and turned around to go back to Akihabara where we met Paul and grabbed some food in some isekaya style place. Akihabara is a pretty cosmopolitan place by Tokyo standards (there is even a Kebab van!) so a lot of the staff in shops and restaurants can speak, or at least understand, a bit of English. Anyway, the waitress came up and asked what we wanted to eat but we weren't ready so I said "chottomatte" meaning "please wait". And then it came. The eyes that could kill. And she had eyes only for me. And not in a good way. I was shocked and she totally ignored me after that when giving the food out. Dunno what happened[A].
Went to Asakusa[B] for a bit after that to have a quick look around but it was dark and so we just sat down for a bit.
---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---
A. I do not recalling this happening again although I do remember being ignored a number of times when with other people which was quite frustrating. My level of Japanese in 2003 was not great but the years after, I could get by and travel around on my own without much difficulty. I may have said this in a more abrupt way than I should have, that is a possibility. Generally, my pronunciation was OK - not great but definitely better than most. When I visited in later years, I travelled solo quite regularly and cannot recall having any problems getting myself understood in any part of the country at hotels or even when renting bikes from people that had never met non-Japanese before. Yet, if I was then joined by a Japanese person, suddenly my Japanese became incomprehensible to the stranger and they would then ask the Japanese person to say again or direct all conversation to them. Even if that person they thought was Japanese wasn't and was actually of another East Asian background and couldn't speak a word of Japanese. This happened a few times yet I never stopped feeling frustrated by it. I loved travelling around Japan, and I loved travelling around Japan with some people but it was quite a different experience.↩
B. Asakusa is an area with a relatively well-known temple and has a more old fashioned feel than much of the rest of Tokyo. It was also on the same train line as Koshigaya and so I regularly passed through. The area is now home to the Tokyo Sky Tree which is a ludicrously oversized sky scraper which opened in the early 2010s. But, most importantly, it is the name of a very nice restaurant in Mornington Crescent.↩
Anyway, I went off with Steve (who also had to get his money from Head Office) and Paul who I had sent on a mission to find me RAM (PC whiz that he is) in Akihabara. I was gonna meet him there after for food and…stuff. Got the money and turned around to go back to Akihabara where we met Paul and grabbed some food in some isekaya style place. Akihabara is a pretty cosmopolitan place by Tokyo standards (there is even a Kebab van!) so a lot of the staff in shops and restaurants can speak, or at least understand, a bit of English. Anyway, the waitress came up and asked what we wanted to eat but we weren't ready so I said "chottomatte" meaning "please wait". And then it came. The eyes that could kill. And she had eyes only for me. And not in a good way. I was shocked and she totally ignored me after that when giving the food out. Dunno what happened[A].
Went to Asakusa[B] for a bit after that to have a quick look around but it was dark and so we just sat down for a bit.
---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---
A. I do not recalling this happening again although I do remember being ignored a number of times when with other people which was quite frustrating. My level of Japanese in 2003 was not great but the years after, I could get by and travel around on my own without much difficulty. I may have said this in a more abrupt way than I should have, that is a possibility. Generally, my pronunciation was OK - not great but definitely better than most. When I visited in later years, I travelled solo quite regularly and cannot recall having any problems getting myself understood in any part of the country at hotels or even when renting bikes from people that had never met non-Japanese before. Yet, if I was then joined by a Japanese person, suddenly my Japanese became incomprehensible to the stranger and they would then ask the Japanese person to say again or direct all conversation to them. Even if that person they thought was Japanese wasn't and was actually of another East Asian background and couldn't speak a word of Japanese. This happened a few times yet I never stopped feeling frustrated by it. I loved travelling around Japan, and I loved travelling around Japan with some people but it was quite a different experience.↩
B. Asakusa is an area with a relatively well-known temple and has a more old fashioned feel than much of the rest of Tokyo. It was also on the same train line as Koshigaya and so I regularly passed through. The area is now home to the Tokyo Sky Tree which is a ludicrously oversized sky scraper which opened in the early 2010s. But, most importantly, it is the name of a very nice restaurant in Mornington Crescent.↩
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