Dear readers,

It’s time to continue the Not Always Right world tour! Last time, we visited India, and before that The Philippines and Brazil! Today, at your request, we are heading to that crazy island where a mega-technopolis sits next to beautiful countryside, where a perfect cone volcano can be seen from a high-speed train that whisks you across the country in a matter of hours… yes… we’re going to Japan!

Japan is an island nation, but is actually made up of 6,852 islands in total! However, of its 127 million inhabitants, a whopping 37 million live in its capital, Tokyo, making it the largest urban area in the world by population. It has a diverse history, from alternating periods of war and peace during its imperial times, to tales of great battles involving the infamous samurai. Today, it’s known as a leader in electronics, animation, whiskey, and cars!

To continue the Not Always Right world tour, we’ve gone through our archives to find 23 stories about, or set in Japan! We hope you enjoy it!

Watashi Whaaa – This roundup is off to a really… discouraging start…

Se Habla Japañol – This one’s a trilingual delight!

Shogun The Way To Go Home – Close your mouth and open your ears, lady.

(more…)

I’m an American who lives in Tokyo teaching English. I’m just finishing up a forty-minute lesson with two intermediate-level students: a middle-aged man and a young woman. I always use the last minutes to ask if the students have any questions about anything since this is usually their only time to interact with a non-Japanese person.

Me: “Okay, guys, before we finish, do you have any questions about anything? About the lesson? About America? About me?”

Male Student: “Do you like Japanese girls?”

This is a really common question asked by male students to male teachers.

Me: “Um, no. Actually, I like Japanese guys. I’m gay.”

Male Student: “Oh.”

The conversation goes silent. I’m pretty open about that fact and students are always very nice about it, but it usually is a conversation stopper.

Me: “Okay, so, no more questions?”

Male Student: “How do you, um…”

The student pauses for a moment, obviously struggling to find the right words.

Male Student: “How do you, um… play in the nighttime?”

I’m completely taken aback by his question and try to think of something to say, but before I can, the female student speaks up.

Female Student: “Hey, hey, I don’t want to hear this. Please ask him after the lesson!”

I am playing the board game “Secret Hitler” with my wife and friends. It’s similar to “Werewolf,” in that you are assigned a role and have to keep it secret whether you are a good guy or a bad guy. The point of the game is to try to kill Hitler or get Hitler elected, and nobody is supposed to let on who their assigned role is.

It’s our first time playing this game. I have been dealt the card for Hitler, and my wife is reading out the instructions.

“Everybody close your eyes. Hitler and the fascist should open their eyes and acknowledge each other.”

We do so, and then there is a long pause while the other fascist and I wait for the next instruction. It takes a while to come and I get impatient. 

“And then we close our eyes again?” 

A disbelieving silence comes from the rest of the table, and then I speak again.

“S***.”

I’m an American living and working in Japan. One day, I get severely ill, so I call an ambulance and am taken to the hospital. It turns out to be an easily treated condition, but they keep me in for observation overnight.

During checkout the next day, they keep warning me and apologizing that payment will be expensive, even with my insurance. “I’m so sorry but it will be pricey,” is something I hear from several people. 

At that point, I’m a little worried about the cost, but checkout is almost done and they present me with the bill — about ¥30,000, a little under $300 US.

I surprise them when I start laughing, then horrify them when I say that an ambulance ride, hospital stay, and followup medication in the US would easily add up to at least ten times that price!

This story is part of our Japan roundup!

Read the next Japan roundup story!

Read the Japan roundup!

(My company provides English tutoring in Japan, and we are contracted to work a certain number of days each month. If we are unable to work but have no sick days or vacation days available, we are asked to trade a later day off. If we choose not to do that, our pay is docked accordingly as we are not working the contracted number of days. [Coworker #1] does not seem to get this. He’s only been here a couple of months, but he’s constantly calling out, and [Coworker #2], who follows [Coworker #1]’s social media accounts, says she’s seen him posting pictures of himself at clubs or in other cities on some of the days he claims he’s sick. Finally, one day, a few of us are hanging out and he starts complaining about things.)

Coworker #1: “Man, I’m so broke… I have to go pay my electricity bill tonight, but I don’t know if I’ve got enough money to buy food next week…”

Coworker #2: “Didn’t you just go to a club last night? Maybe you should cut down on things like that until you’ve got a little more money saved up.”

Coworker #1: “But this job is just so boring! I have to have something fun to do on my days off. But yeah… I guess you’re right. It just sucks that they tell you that you’ll be getting [salary] and then they do everything they can not to give it to you.”

Coworker #3: “What do you mean by that?”

Coworker #1: “You know, they tell you they pay [salary], but then they cut your pay when you get sick.”

Me: “They only cut your pay if you’re working fewer days than you’re scheduled for. Didn’t you call out like eight times last month? How many of those did you use sick days for? Or make up later?”

Coworker #1: “Well, yeah, but I wasn’t feeling good! I’m all out of sick days. I didn’t make them up, but that’s another piece of bulls***! They tell you that you get 117 days off and then they don’t want you to use them!”

Coworker #2: “Uh, dude. You realize those are your regular days off, right? Not vacation days.”

Coworker #1: “What?!”

Me: “That’s weekends and holidays. We get a total of 117 regular days off during the year. Then, we get [number] sick days and [number] vacation days. Did… did you think you got 117 vacation days to just take off whenever?”

Coworker #1: “Well, yeah, that’s what the contract makes it sound like!”

Coworker #3: “No. No, it isn’t. Go back and read your contract again.”

(We’ve been trying to give him advice and encouragement from the start, but between how often he calls out and how unenthusiastic he seems about the job in general, we’re not expecting him to last much longer.)