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Originally Posted by squarejawhero
After asking for directions to the DVD section of a local department store, an English speaking rep chased me down (I'd moved onto other things by then, namely headphones) to tell me in English!
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Much like doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, "ye shall doe nae harme" (or something like that
), the Japanese salesperson takes an oath, "ye muste doe helpe". As soon as any question is asked, it must be answered; as soon as any help is requested, it must be given. Particularly when a foreigner asks something which is not entirely understood, it is not uncommon for a dozen people to be mobilized to try to find an answer. It may sound impressive, but it's not the most efficient operation, as there's a pecking order to who's called. One must first call the next person up the chain, even if there's no chance that person can be useful. Then that person will call the next one up, and so on, until they finally reach the person who is qualified to help. If you happen to ask the person at the bottom of the chain for help, it may take a few minutes for the request to bubble up to the right person, but once it does, you can expect them to come running... any time lost to inefficiency is made up for with fleet feet.
Don't know what department store you went to in Omiya, whether the big Sogo store or something else, but I'm sure you know about Topos, right? It's a discount department store, sort of like America's K-Mart or Wal-Mart, and last time I was in Omiya I saw one there. It's a bit of a mess, or at least the one I've been in was, what with items being sold straight out of their shipping boxes and having to bring your own shopping bag because they don't provide one... but I guess that's how they keep their prices down. Sometimes you can find some pretty nifty stuff there, and even if you don't it's almost worth going at least once just to see the dumpier side of Japanese retail...
