Jul 31, 2005
Down with the A-Bridge
I very rarely have bad experiences in Tokyo, but last night’s outing to the a-bridge cafe/bar in Sangenjaya left a bad taste in my mouth. I went there, a place I’ve been to a few times, to get a few pics for a piece I was going to write for a German magazine, and brought some friends along (Marxy and U.T.) for a drink. We went up, paid for our drinks (a bit pricey — a nama beer was 700 yen), and went out on the outdoor roof patio. Well, I maybe took 1 or 2 sips before I accidently dropped the glass. The bartender that served me came out, and made a big deal about cleaning the mess, and then just left. No replacement beer. Having just paid 700 yen for it (something I’m sure costs them 100 yen or less — it wasn’t a very big glass), I wasn’t very excited about paying double for what would end up being one drink, and so patiently waited for my companions to finish their drinks before we left and went someplace else.
Yes, it was my fault, but it seems to me that the right thing to do would have been to simply offer me another drink. With what happen, I just felt bad and annoyed, and not only do I no longer want to go there, I’m also dropping the piece (a recommendation) I was going to write. Screw them.
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I have to agree, that was a failure on their part. It’s amazing to see how one bad experience can foul a string of good past experiences for any customer; somedays running a business is just very hard.
why didn’t he just ask for another beer?
This has troubled me for the last couple of days, and I can’t help but think that their response went against almost all the traditional ideas of Japanese customer service. I’ve eaten half a hamburger at Wendy’s here, noticed that it didn’t have the cheese I ordered, and got a new one. (And when they were late with my fries, they paid me back.) Besides the few stores bucking the trend on purpose – A Bathing Ape or Comme des Garcons – Japanese marketing tends to treat every customer who walks in the door with the most edifying respect.
So, why did they not get you another drink? Either they are terrible businessmen who don’t understand that the 700 yen isn’t the actually cost of the beer, or it was a mild form of discrimation. I didn’t think so at the time, but talking to Japanese people later about it, they seemed sure that it had a lot to do with us being non-Japanese.
I think it’s a bit more complex than just racial discrimination. I see it more that they are a lame bunch of late-starts trying to do a hipster cafe for their lame late-adopting hipster friends in Sangenjaya and don’t like the idea that these two foreigners – in shorts, no less! – came in without being invited. They may have treated 40-year old Japanese businessmen the same way.
look, of COURSE this has nothing to do with racial discrimination. in fact, i don’t think jean was implying this in his post, was he. was he saying it was racist when it happened? anyway, the thing i have problem with is that if he wasn’t happy with the way he was treated, isn’t he the one that should defend his rights as a customer in this case? (no one is going to do it for him, so…) how can he do this? just do what people normally do. ask for another beer, or ask to speak to the manager, or something like that. i’m not suggesting that he should have caused a scene or anything like that, i’m just saying if he is as mad as he seems in his post (and jean is almost never enraged on this blog about anything), why didn’t he do something less passive about his situation instead of allowing himself to be mistreated by some stupid waiter who was obviously not on the ball? if he had said something to someone, gotten his beer, and blown off some steam at that time, perhaps he wouldn’t have boiled over to the point of writing off the whole place (which he was lauding just a few months ago here), and he wouldn’t have reached the point of writing ’srew them’…which is very un-jean-like, don’t you think? in other words, when japanese waiters stop acting like japanese waiters, that doesn’t mean that you have to respond like a japanese customer would and roll over and not do anything…
Well, I think we were being very “Japanese” (or maybe just, overpolite) by not complaining and relying on the management to fix the problems without pushing them. The staff were being total assholes with us to start with, making us pay in advance etc., ignoring us in general, so it wasn’t the kind of thing that we could ask nicely about to our friendly waiter. Asking for another beer felt like waging a total confrontation.
Oh, it wasn’t Jean that suggest racial discrimination but my Japanese friends.
suggested (not suggest)
Ouch. You never know who that unassuming guy sitting at a table may be…so it’s good for businesses to be polite and considerate to everyone (provided the customer is not obnoxious or disruptive).
This show of poor grace lost them a good review from a blogger who has influenced at least one person as to places to visit in Tokyo. =D
david sez: Well, I think we were being very ‘Japanese’ (or maybe just, overpolite) by not complaining and relying on the management to fix the problems without pushing them.
and r. sez: this is exactly my point! you guys were doing YOUR take on being ‘Japanese’ by not complaining, but you were really thinking “these waiters/staff are being jerks”…and the friction created by the intensity of your thoughts and your on-actions only harmed YOU. (jean’s rather un-jeanlike entry, and the fact that you were “has troubled…for the last couple of days about it.” now please don’t mis-understand, i’m not saying that the difference between really BEING japanese or not is NOT feeling this hostility towards being mis-treated by the staff in the first place. i’m sure that an ordinary japanese person WOULD feel a little uncomfortable…but the IMPORTANT thing is, that this waiter already ‘CANCLED OUT’ his ‘japaneseness’ by treating you guys that way in the first place, so there was no real reason (other than obviously your transcending grace and presence of mind) to ‘rise above’ and take the route that you did.
or let’s try this from a different angle: let’s imagine that a japanese person, after living in america for a few years, with a prettey decent command of the english language, one day goes to an eatery, and the waiter is actually a VERY good waiter and does a really good job serving them. they even think ‘hey, this waiter is a cut above’ but after the end of the meal…for one reason or another they FAIL to tip the waiter accordingly (i.e. a little more)…they have in a larger sense, ‘failed’ to understand the ’service’ culture itself as it is represented in america.
>Asking for another beer felt like
>waging a total confrontation.
ah, but a ‘total confrontation’ was already being waged against YOU, my friend!
in i totally PUBLIC space (like a train or something) i think that a japanese person who feels they are being ‘wronged’ in some sense (i.e. a woman who sees someone reading a pornographic magazine that REALLY, REALLY offends her) tends NOT to take any action, the reason being the standard “i don’t want to cause trouble for the other people on the train”…which is, from a very self-less POV, understandable.
now getting back to your case, which was in a semi-PUBLIC place (where you were paying for a service or goods) i think that some (but granted not all) of the japanese people i know actually would have complained, as long as everyone in group at the table seemed to share the same opinion that a member of the group was being ‘wronged’ by the waiter. here the ’strenght’ of the individual supported by a unified group/collective psyche tends to yeild situations where we can find japanese people being just as protective of their ‘right to appeal for proper service’ as an american (usually only exersiced after some extremity has been passed). in brief, complaining directly to the staff IS among the gamut of ‘possible’ japanese reactions to this situation. you guys using the ‘when in rome’ excuse of course doesn’t support non-action. so there must be another reason.
but more than this, isn’t it just more healthy over all to blow off this kind of steam ON THE SPOT by taking honestly to the waiter or staff, getting your free beer, and feeling, if not totally better, at least not like some kind of victim of the waiter’s rudeness? it saves a lot of blogging after the fact, i think.
anyway, i think that the cafe in question IS pretty cool (i tend to agree w/jean’s earlier write-ups of the cafe). one waiter isn’t enough of a reason to write the whole place off. but if it happens again…
Bla bla bla…
The point is that he would have to ask for another beer. I dont’t think that actually having the beer in his hand would make the difference. It’s how the staff acted in the first place.
But I agree on giving them a second chance to see if the problem was just a grumpy waiter.
i just sent a-bridge the URL for this thread. i wonder how they’ll reply…
Jean’s determination to stay away from the provocations on this thread is admirable.
he brought it up in the first place…
It was used as a pretext for a personal-political squabble. Perhaps if you don’t know the people involved, their histories and differences, you don’t see that. Do you really think r. sent the URL of this thread to the cafe out of the goodness of his heart, or to try and improve things? People can’t stand that Jean is so positive, so the moment he says anything negative, they try to escalate the discord.
I wouldn’t have dared expect another beer.
However, the waiter making a big deal about it sucks.
Anyway, it looks like you’re doing things the New Zealand way – never complain, just leave and tell your friends about it. I think we find it impolite to tell someone that their food/service/decor is crappy, no matter what we have paid.
That’s the British way too. There’s no way I’d ask for a replacement for a beer I knocked over myself. In fact, I’d offer to pay for the glass!
Can’t resist pasting in a bit from my friend Craig Robinson’s blog today (flipflopflying dot com). He’s at the airport in New York, about to fly back to Berlin:
“When I stopped to get something to eat about half an hour ago, there was this woman who was ordsering food for herself and her annoying little bastard kid. Crying crying crying. Mommy Mommy Mommy! She got her food, then went off. Only to return a few moments later, barge in front of everyone and held out an empty plastic beaker. My son dropped his Sprite, she said, with a look on her face like, Gimme another one, you! And the guy did give her another Sprite. But I wonder about this. Why do people expect to get a free drink cos they’re too bloody clumsy to not spill it? Does this sort of thing happen in any other sort of retail outlet? Sorry Mr Vodafone, this bloke stole my phone just outside the shop, can I have another please? Dear Apple, I was mugged as I left your store, please can you send me a replacement iPod… I do-ho-hon’t think so.”
See, Craig is even more “British” than I am!
you know, it is like they say…when in tokyo, do as the british do, right?