[journal] The females I've met so far have all been very polite.
I'll give two examples drawn from japanese staff coworkers:
The Remembering GirlShe once told a story about her husband to a teacher. Her husband apparently got into a car accident and lost his leg or was injured very badly. A few weeks passed and one day the topic of her husband came up again and that teacher mentioned something that alluded to her husband's injury. She was overwhelmed that he remembered their conversation and kept repeating how he was a very kind man for remembering.
Okay I don't know what kind of assholes Japanese guys are, but if you worked with someone and they shared a story that involved the removal of their husband's leg and you couldn't remember the story, either you starred in the movie
Memento or you are often referred to as the Tin Man from
The Wizard of Oz.
The Bowing GirlOne day a teacher did not show up for work and the bowing girl was responsible for scheduling customers with teachers. At the time she was newly recruited so she didn't want to make any mistakes and was accordingly panicked and stressed. One teacher offered to call his friend to cover the shift, and his friend agreed to do the last minute shift.
Now you'd think a simple bow and thank-you would suffice, but instead she got down on her knees and started doing multiple hands-in-the-air to hands-on-the-floor bows as if worshipping him, all the while chanting thank-you so much, thank-you so much, thank you so much.
The teacher stood there in shock and embarrassment as students walked by gawking. He eventually managed to say, "No, it wasn't a big deal. No problem. Please stand up."
