- I went to a neko cafe in Osaka that was closing in 12mn (their times posted online were incorrect). They nicely warned me of this and I said it was fine, I'd rather see their cats 12mn than not at all. Because they were the owners, they could have given me a discount from the full price of 1200 yen, but I could tell it never occurred to them. In other countries it's been offered to me without asking, or in a couple of places they even just let me in for free because they felt bad about charging me for so little time. To be fair, I didn't ask because it was a bit hard in Japanese and I didn't want to waste the 12mn left anyway.
- In Kobe, the ropeway becomes cheaper at 17:00 because the garden at the top closes, but the garden entrance closes at 16:30. I arrived at 16:20 and was notified that the garden would be closed by the time I got up, but I still had to pay full price. Ugh? How long have they worked with this? Didn't any employee point out that maybe lowering the price at the time you can't make it to the garden entrance anymore, be a good idea?
On that last point, nothing is perfect. If people think a bit too much outside the box like the French, they are more likely to rationalize rules and laws and not obey them all depending on the situation. You can make an argument that's it's not always a good thing. On the flipside, being very orderly and respectful of rules like the Japanese makes for a nice and clean society which is appealing in many ways, but from time to time I think showing a bit more initiative and being able to rationalize a rule that really doesn't make sense in a given situation, can be a good thing too. Anyway, enough rambling, I still very much enjoyed this third trip to Japan and am thankful to all the very nice and helpful Japanese people we met. And for the French speakers, here is some French Engrish :)