08.30.07

Midwesterner in the Sun Kingdom (Part 2): Banned in Japan

Posted in Japan, Personal Anecdotes, Travel Log (Asia) at 2:41 am by Benjamin Ross

continued from Midwestern in the Sun Kingdom (Part 1)

It has now been almost a week since my last post and I apologize for the drop off in content, especially since I promised to blog from Japan. I am now back in Kansas City, and spending my first day or two attempting to live a somewhat normal lifestyle. Upon my arrival, I was promptly whisked to B.B.’s Lawnside BBQ, one of Kansas City’s finer BBQ establishments (with live blues taboot), to begin what would be an intensive 72 hour family reunion. Now that that’s over, I finally have some time to catch up with the Japan excursion.

I would be lying if I said that the recent lack of content was in no part due to my own negligence, but it is also due to restrictions put on my Internet usage by a particular youth hostel operator in Tokyo. Here’s how things transpired.

My first day in Tokyo was likely the most efficient day of travel I have ever had in my life. My first order of business was to visit the Yakasuni Shrine. After living in China 3 years, and hearing all the anti-Japanese rhetoric in regards to the shrine, there was no way I could go to Japan and not see it. Fortunately, it was coincidentally located a half hour walk from my youth hostel, so at 9 am I headed out to make my visit. After the shrine, I visited the local Harajuku, a hangout for trendy teenagers, Shibuya, one of Tokyo’s central shopping districts, the Meiji Shrine, and Yoyogi Park, an urban park with street performers, a skate park, and even breakdancing classes. I spent most of my day on foot, walking around these areas, trying to take in as much as possible. At 6 in the evening I saw a baseball game at the Tokyo Dome.

By about the fifth inning of the baseball game I was completely exhausted. I left the game early, and hopped on the subway back to my youth hostel. I had been using the subways to get from location to location, but had probably walked at least 5 miles exploring the various areas. I was completely exhausted (going on only about 8 hours sleep for the previous 48 hours), my feet were blistered from the walking, and I was ready to get back to the youth hostel early, take a shower, and relax in front of the computer screen for a couple hours. As I rode the train away from the Tokyo Dome, I had been thinking how incredibly efficient the Tokyo subway system was, and how easy it had been to get to all the areas I had wanted to go to, without any previous knowledge of Tokyo mass transit.

Ironically, it was at this very time when I was to have my first incident with Japanese mass transit. Before I go any further, I should mention that this was the only problem I had with Tokyo mass transit, and overall it is an excellent system. So this likely was an isolated incident.

Shinjuku Station is the most trafficked subway station in Japan, and I’m willing to bet it is one of the most trafficked stations in the world. My youth hostel was located one stop away from Shinjuku so whenever I wanted to return, I would have to go to Shinjuku first. According to my map, all I had to do was take the train from the Tokyo Dome to Shinjuku station, find the Shinjuku line, and then ride it for one stop. The previous night I had done the half hour walk from the hostel to Shinjuku, but after a day of walking and sore feet, the last thing I wanted to do was walk for another half hour.

To make a long story short, I spent an hour and a half following signs around Shinjuku Station, trying not to pass out from fatigue, only to find out later (through the advice of some friendly locals) that the Shinjuku line is actually located just down the street from Shinjuku Station. By the time I found the subway, what had originally been a plan to get back to the hostel by 8 and in bed by 10 had suddenly turned into getting back to the hostel at 10 and getting in bed by midnight.

When I finally made it back to the hostel, I took a shower, put on fresh clothes, picked up my laptop from my locker, and went down to the lobby for some much needed rest and relaxation. The past 72 hours had consisted of packing, throwing a party, riding planes, and touring around Tokyo with a few hours of sleep peppered in. I had had a productive day seeing Tokyo, and now was tired, mentally and physically, blistered, and worn out. After conquering the Tokyo subway, there was nothing which was going to get between me and about 3 hours of Internet therapy…so I thought.

As I was setting up my computer in the lobby, one of the young girls working at the hostel approached me.

“Are you Benjamin Ross?” she asked.

“Yes, that’s me. What’s wrong?”

Before she had said anything more I realized exactly what the problem was. The previous night when I had checked into the hostel, they had asked me to pay ahead of time for my 3 night stay. I had already booked online with my credit card, and had paid a $10 deposit to reserve my bed. On my last day in China, I had been paid in cash for my work on the TV show. The money had been given to me in the afternoon and my flight was at 8 am the following morning, so I hadn’t had a chance to get the money changed in China. RMB is notoriously difficult to convert into foreign currency, but I had planned on finding a place in Tokyo which could convert it to yen, and then using that money to pay for my hostel, rather than charging up my credit card. I had told the hostel employee of my plan, and asked if it was ok for me to give them my credit card as collateral, and then pay them the following day after I had exchanged all of my RMB. I told them that on the off chance, I could not get RMB, they could just charge my card. The staff complied, and said this would be ok as long as they could hold on to my credit card.

Exchanging my RMB into yen proved even more difficult than I had originally anticipated, and by the time I finally located a bank which would do it, it was too late, as they closed at 3:30!

I told this to the girl, apologized for the inconvenience, and asked if they could continue to hold onto my credit card, and that I would go back to the bank the following day before 3:30, exchange my money, and pay them in full.

“Follow me,” the girl said, as she took me to the hostel’s front entrance where behind a counter sat an old man whom she conversed with in Japanese.

“This is the owner,” she said, “He knows of your situation. He wants to know why you said yesterday that you would have the money today, and now you don’t have it.”

I told him about how I had gone to several banks, none of which would accept RMB and how I had finally found a bank which would, but it had closed at 3:30. The girl translated for the owner who was not amused.

“The owner says you said yesterday you would have the money, but today you do not have it. Why did you say you would get the money, but now you don’t have it?” she asked.

“Just like I told you. I thought I could get it, but it turned out changing RMB in Tokyo is much more difficult than I thought. Now I know where to get money, so it should be no problem tomorrow. In the meantime you guys can still hold onto my credit card.” I told her.

Again she translated, and the owner replied to her. She translated back to me, “He says you need to go out and get money now. There is an ATM in Shinjuku. You can ride the subway.”

At my level of exhaustion, and after already spending 2 extra hours in Shinjuku Station, there was no way I was going to go back to the station, in the heat, find an ATM, find the subway line again, come back, shower again, and relax in front of my computer, all in time to wake up early the following morning for my last full day in Japan.

I turned to her. “Listen, I understand you guys want the money now, but I am completely exhausted, injured, sleep deprived, and I just took a shower. Would it be possibly for me to just pay you tomorrow? You guys can hold on to my credit card, so there is no need to worry about me leaving without paying.”

“Let me ask the owner.” she said. She spoke to him for a few minutes in Japanese, and then the owner turned to me and said “NO…You get money or no stay!”

As much as I did not want to charge the stay to my credit card, my desire to pay in cash was not nearly as strong as my desire not to make another trip to Shinjuku Station.

“Ok you know what…don’t worry about it.” I said to the girl. “Just charge my 3 nights to my credit card, and we’ll have this all taken care of.” She translated to the owner, who scowled again and replied back to her. She translated to me.

“The owner wants to know why last night you refused to pay on your credit card, and tonight you want to pay with a credit card.”

Again, I explained my situation, how I thought I could get cash, but I ended up not able to get it, and that I could either give him cash tomorrow since I now knew where the bank was, or I would be willing to just let them charge my card to get the ordeal over with. The girl knew exactly what I was talking about and seemed to understand my situation, but the owner refused to budge.

“He says we will not accept your credit card. You must pay in cash or find some place else to sleep.” At this point the conversation had already dug 15 minutes into my window of computer and sleep time and I was getting agitated.

“I booked this hostel with my credit card. Yesterday you would accept my credit card. But now you say you will not accept my credit card?” At this point my physical exhaustion was beginning to take its toll on my attitude and patience.

“Yes, that is what he says.” she replied.

“Do you take credit cards?” I asked, in a raised voice.

No answer. I asked again.

“Do you take credit cards?” I asked, louder.

“Sir, we will not take your credit card.” the girl replied.

By this time I was yelling, and the people in the lobby using the computers were taking notice.

“This hostel accepts credit cards. Why will you not accept my credit card?”

The girl spoke again with the owner and turned to me apologetically, “He says that you said yesterday you would get cash, and now you do not have cash. He says you are not sincere.”

I emptied my wallet, laid 2000 RMB (equivalent of enough yen for over a weeklong stay) and 2 credit cards on the table. “Listen, I am not trying to rip you off. I have money. You have my credit card. If I were to leave without paying, you could just run up the bill on that card. I am not leaving this hostel tonight.”

“Yes, I understand your situation completely, but he is the owner, and I have no say. He says you need cash tonight,” she said.

I felt a little guilty about getting angry, especially with the girl who was just acting as a messenger. However, I also was not pleased with the way I was being treated, since with all the facts present, it was blatantly obvious that there was no way I could have stiffed the hostel, even if that had been my intention.

“OK, tell the owner he has 2 options. He can either charge my credit card right now, or I can give him cash tomorrow when I go back to the bank. I am not trying to cheat you, and I am not leaving this hostel.”

After conversing again with the owner, she replied, “You must pay in cash.” After running over the same arguments for another 10 minutes, and attracting more attention from the other guests in the lobby, the girl finally stepped in with a solution.

“The owner says he wants you to pay him with your Chinese money.”

“That’s no problem at all,” I said, knowing that my original reason for not paying with credit was that I had wanted to get rid of all my cash first. “I would love to get rid of this RMB, however, make sure to tell him that transferring it into yen might be a hassle for him. I plan on doing it anyway tomorrow and can give him yen then, but if he wants to make things more difficult on himself…”

“He says he wants you to pay him in your Chinese currency.”

I told her that was fine with me, and the owner picked up the phone and made a call.

“He is finding out a fair price now.” the girl said.

Using a calculator he typed out 450 as the rate he would charge me. I had already calculated the rate for the evening in RMB and it had come to 370. I pointed this out to the girl and when she told the owner she replied that he would be charging an extra fee for the conversion.

“You know what, I really don’t care.” I said. “As long as I don’t have to leave this building tonight, it’s fine with me.”

The conflict was now over, and as it neared 11 o’clock, I could finally sit down with my computer and veg out for an hour or two before crashing out and waking up again 7 hours later.

Two computers were set up in the lobby along with 2 additional LAN hookups for people who had their own computers. I had needed to make use of several files and applications from my laptop, not to mention the difficulty of using Japanese keyboards so my plan had been to hook up my laptop. I had tried this the previous evening, but the employee who had been working had noticed that my laptop charger needed an adapter to fit into a Japanese socket. I had spent an hour of my day (and 975 yen, approx $8 USD) buying the adapter so that I could use my own computer at the hostel.

The electrical outlets were all located behind a counter where only employees were allowed to go, but which were available for guests to use, so I asked the girl if she could help me plug my computer in. Hearing my voice, the owner came followed her to see what new crazy demands I was requesting. Seeing that I wanted to use my computer, he interrupted us and began speaking in Japanese to the girl. She turned to me.

“The owner says that if you want to use the computer it will cost you 1000 yen per hour to use.”

The owner looked at me, “Japan electricity very expensive.”

“That is ridiculous. Last night I wanted to plug in the my computer, and your employee told me it would be no problem. I even went out today and bought a special adapter, just so I could use my computer here for 2 nights. Furthermore, you advertise this hostel as having free computer access, and there are 3 people sitting right there using it for free.

Once again, the girl looked at me apologetically, “I know, and I agree with you, but there is nothing I can do. He is the owner.”

“I already spent 1000 yen of my own money just to buy the adapter. Had I known there was a 1000 yen charge per hour, I never would have bought the adapter. I already paid for my room in the hostel, and now I would like to take advantage of the services which were advertised as being included in the hostel stay.”

Again, I got the same response from the owner translated from the girl, “You must pay, 1000 yen per hour. It is a fair price.”

“You know what, fine, I don’t care. I just want to relax and get on the computer. Tell him I will pay him 1000 yen, but only for unlimited usage tonight, not 1000 yen per hour.”

Again, another conference.

“You cannot use the electricity. He says he does not like your attitude. You were not sincere with him the first time. Japanese people attach great importance to sincerity and honesty, and you were not honest.” I had effectively been banned from the Internet by the youth hostel.

“I was not lying to him…” I yelled at her before catching myself in my anger. As angry as I was, it really was no fault of the girl, and I felt bad about her getting caught in the middle. I apologized to her, told her I knew the situation was not her fault, and asked what she suggested.

“I trust you. I know you weren’t trying to cheat us, but the owner is just like that, and I can’t do anything about it. Why don’t you go upstairs to the 9th floor. There is a wireless network you can use there, and he will never know. I apologize for this situation.”

I thanked her again, and apologized for any of my tirade which was directed at her, and went upstairs. While there was an electrical outlet, the wireless network was temporarily out of service. I finally gave up, succumbing to the fact I had been banned from the Internet in Japan and shifted my strategy to trying to salvage enough sleep out of the night as possible.

By the time I got to sleep it was nearly 1 AM. As I lay in bed I went over the exchange in my mind again and again. Part of me was angry. I had only 3 days in Japan and was trying to maximize those days as much as possible. The last thing I needed was to waste an evening on such a fiasco, especially on the false pretense that I was trying to cheat the youth hostel. On the other hand I was a little disappointed in myself for getting so angry about it, and I am quite sure this had some influence on how the owner had responded.

Although my short temper and the ensuing tiff was in no doubt partially influenced by my state of impatience and exhaustion, it struck me as interesting that I have never found myself in this type of situation in China. Something felt odd, strange, different. Then it finally hit me. Throughout our argument, no effort was made on the owner’s part to save face, either his or my own. He had directly told me he suspected that I was cheating him, without giving either himself or me a way out which could have potentially prevented an altercation. He had then fought back with me by insisting that I pay to use the electricity on account of my “insincerity,” and then he had told me how much his people honored sincerity (in effect implying that mine did not). Had this same situation occurred in China, they probably would have found some obscure rule beyond their control which prevented them from accepting credit cards on Tuesdays after 10 pm when it isn’t raining, or conveniently discovered that the credit card reader was broken. As angry as they might have been, they would not have said “you are a liar, and I am going to make your life difficult because of it,” even if that was exactly what they were thinking.

I am not trying to say either way of dealing with matters is more appropriate, nor am I asserting that the way this man acted is at all representative of typical Japanese behavior. But I do believe, it does to some extent represent how two different cultures might deal with conflict. My own personal tendency to favor a more direct approach, but I can see how preserving face and skirting around direct attention to issues could serve to prevent an embarrassing situation in particular contexts. I tend to believe that the actions of the youth hostel owner are more attributed to the fact of him being an asshole than to him being a Japanese, but even those who violate typical some social norms, are still very much influenced by the typical behaviors of the society in which they live. But in the end, I am just glad to be back in America, a land where my Internet usage has still yet to be precluded by any governments or angry youth hostel operators. More on Japan (and China) in the days to come.

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