Friday, August 3, 2012

Japanese Business Models

Today I was walking to school, chatting with a  friend when we both heard a strange sound.  To me (because I don't know any Arabic) it sounded like the Muslim call to prayer.  It had that same slow, melodic chanting sound, but I didn't really think there were any mosques around or that the Japanese would allow that to be played on a regular day, so we looked for the source.

I felt so dumb.  We were standing right in front of it.  It was an ice cream truck.  Once I knew that, the chant sounded a lot like "a-i-su ku-ri-mu."  And that's a fine thing to chant when you are selling ice cream in Japan, but maybe through some bells in there, liven it up a little.  Your target audience isn't Opera attendees and wine aficionados; it's small children and nostalgic college kids like me.

The people who know their market are the maid cafes and the nomihoudai (all you can drink) places.  If you want to go to one of these places it's best to ask around and see where other people have already gone, this way you can avoid the famous "gaijin trap."

This was a sneaky shot because you're not allowed to take pictures of the maids.
Outside of a gaijin trap (like at many restaurants here) there will be an usher to invite you in.  This person will tell you how much it costs to eat/drink at their restaurant, but that's all they will be able to say in Japanese.  And wow the price is so cheap!  Much better than the rip off we saw down the street! And then they have you, because at the end of the meal they can pretty much charge you what ever they want and chalk it up to a misunderstanding.  They know you won't be able to fight them because you don't know how to say it in Japanese and you don't know what your legal limits are.  Now you're stuck paying a $200 bill for three drinks because you didn't know about the entry fee, the table fee, the gratuity, and the bar fee.  That's what really happened to one of my friends here last week.

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