veronica 2 Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 Do people appreciate the "performance" you get when you pull into a gas station I wonder? I wish they'd shut up. I wonder if they have training in "how to shout stupidly"? Link to post Share on other sites
skellyhole 0 Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 They amuse me. Link to post Share on other sites
farquah 0 Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 Personally I find some of the female Petrol station attendants great value for money!!! Especially the look on their face when you wind down your window and then realise its a Gaijin behind the wheel!! Link to post Share on other sites
HeatherLocklearRocks 1 Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 I like it, it brightens the day up. Such happy gasoline stand people!! Link to post Share on other sites
Telleboy 0 Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 My first job in Japan,beleive it or not was a Jomo gas stand in Niigata city!! worked there for 9 months cos I didnt want to teach english (the wife did that) so I scored a job from a teacher who worked with my wife and was shaggin the owner of 3 jomo stations, Fu**in hated it.Yeah they give you yelling lessons,good for my japanese though.boss used to take me out and get me twisted 2x a week.good conections as the dude was a yak. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 Interesting question that vron. Surely the answer is 'no'. I mean, how much real added value is there in knowing that your petrol cap is now being removed safely? Is it necessary to be asked if you want your windscreen wiped? And is helpful to be waved off the forecourt, especially knowing they won't take any responsibility if you get rammed? This is part of the ghastly mistake that is being made all over Japan where it is believed that 'vocalization = added value'. Who likes to be greeted, "KONNICHIWA!!", when skulking into Lawson to buy some cancer sticks and maybe a little masturbatory aid? The 'aisatsu boomu' has really gone too far. Japan needs to find some new sources of value, but instead, they get the drones to shout loudly and constantly. It's hard to have a few private thoughts in your car when they're talking at you all the time "And how about your ashtray? Would you like to wipe the steering wheel? You now have 8.3 litres of petrol in your tank" etc. I sometimes try to run them over as I leave the forecourt... Link to post Share on other sites
indosnm 0 Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 good value in winter whe you can't be assed getting out of your car in the cold to fill up. Some over the top but... Link to post Share on other sites
proudtobegay 0 Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 Its all very harmless isn't it? I agree, good in winter they can really help out. Link to post Share on other sites
mattlucas 0 Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 I don't drive so every once in a while they try to get a car to run me over while leaving the station Some of the Gas ladies are kind of cute though in there cover-alls. And they got to be high as a kite sniffing funes all day long. Link to post Share on other sites
rach 1 Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 Still hardly any self -service around hey? Give me self service and cheaper prices. I don't need no shouting. Link to post Share on other sites
bobby12 0 Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 I think its one of those things that depends on whether you are having an 'anti-japan' day or not. At the end of the day, I'd rather have them (ie. drones in general) overly polite than plain old surly like they are in the UK. Its not a job I'd like to do however. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 Last time I was back in the UK, nobody was surly. Some people called me mate, others sir, sometimes both. But in the UK, we have cheques and 24-hour cash dispensers, shoes in sizes above 28, and other useful, real services. The other day my dad offered to send me a cheque for 3,000 quid. I had to say, sorry dad, we don't have cheques in Japan, although if you go into a shop they'll do a pretty good imitation of a sheep bleating for your entertainment. And I wouldn't be able to get any shoes in my size with it either. It's ultimately demeaning for both clerks and customers to have this parody of sincerity going on all the time. The more intensely the parody is required by the employer, the greater the distance between server and served grows. Truly, some of the aisatsu meijin have morphed their cry into the meaningless animal noises that you hear on farms or in zoos, and they let one out on average 10 times a minute. Go into Alpen and you'll get the special, warm Alpen greeting from all the staff. Then ask them if they have a certain brand of snowboard wax, and they'll run about aimlessly for 5 minutes because, unaccountably, they know less about what they have in the shop than you do. What use is that? Link to post Share on other sites
indosnm 0 Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 Quote: Originally posted by rach: Still hardly any self -service around hey? Give me self service and cheaper prices. I don't need no shouting. they're everywhere here, & since I have my 2 fast 2 furious machine that needs hi-oku I have no choice but to do it myself Link to post Share on other sites
Davo 1 Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 It's a real performance ay. Personally I like filling the car up myself, which is the norm in both NZ and the UK where I've been a driver. Sometimes the "over-service" here is good and is usually preferable to surly poor service. However, the ability to bark meaningless pleasentaries are low down in my reqirements of staff as a customer. Agree with the "bad hair day" factor; while it's easy to go through the motions, the pointlessness of a question like "Sen-en yoroshi desuka?" gets to me sometimes. Shouldn't annoy me, but it does when I'm quite clearly not fishing around for coins. Deep breath, count to 10, think of happy place . It's meaningless prattle that just goes to show how de-personalised the service actually is. I'd rather be served by a machine. Clueless staff are almost a given in any large sports, electronics etc store but some of them are good if you can track them down. A snowboard store which is owner-operated is usually much better if not a little more expensive. If I get annoyed by service here it's usually a result of cluelessness, which can be found elsewhere in the world as well, or my grumpy mood antipithy towards the everyday sameness that grips Japan. Please remember your umbrella when you get off the train . Link to post Share on other sites
mina2 6 Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 Funny how Japanese seem to think that this "service" in this country is so personalised etc etc Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 Davo's right. The big stores are like supermarkets, so they end up being staffed by a shelf stackers. You pays your money and you makes your choice. I never wash my car and it gets very grimy. It's nice to have people wipe the window. It saves me the bother of doing it, and my wife the bother of washing any part of my exclusive designer wardrobe that comes into contact with the bodywork. The shouting doesn't bother me to be honest. The aarai shouting at least ensures you don't get some dick stopping at the first pump in a line. Link to post Share on other sites
fukdane 2 Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 they're everywhere here >>>> none that I know of where I live... Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 Self-service not seen. I guess the folks in Nagoya have to pump their own petrol because they beggared themselves by throwing a huge wedding. Link to post Share on other sites
Telleboy 0 Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 One thing that struck me when I started to work at Jomo was "Is there a single brain cell among these numbnuts?".There were some young cool kids there but anyone working there over the age 25 was just a meat head.The forecourt manager harrassed me to chase the cars out of the station shouting "Arigato gozaimashita" as loud as I could.Did it once, went screw this,never again.strangest gas service I`ve ever experianced. Link to post Share on other sites
stripper on coke 0 Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 I don't mind having the station dudes around. It is really funny if I have some overseas guests with me, I make a point of going to the gas stand. My guests can never believe all the shouting, let alone people wanting to wipe your windows, empty your ashtray, check your engine, check the tyres or change the oil. By far the best part is when the station dude RUNS to cash register and back again with the change. I have never been asked for a tip (that I know of), but if that started happening I wouldn't be too impressed either. As for self service, there is a couple kind of near me (Niigata). I have tried to use one once, but didn't have the time or inclination to study and try and work out the instructions for using it. It looked like an atm machine or something, it was a pump and money taker all in one. Quite a strange looking piece of work. All instructions in Japanese - nothing for me in english. There was one station dude around (quite a big gas stand), so I called him over. He wouldn't do the job for me, not even point out the procedure, just jabber away really fast in some local dialect of the Japanese language that I had never heard before.....I climbed back into my car and drove straight to the nearest place with all those dudes in overalls, and have never been back to a self serve place since. Link to post Share on other sites
grungy-gonads 54 Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 You never will be asked for a tip either... Link to post Share on other sites
KlingKlang 1 Posted June 26, 2004 Share Posted June 26, 2004 I think they're really funny. They MUST practice it all. Its like singing. Link to post Share on other sites
wakaran 1 Posted June 27, 2004 Share Posted June 27, 2004 A friend of mine works at a gas stand. I asked him and he said he did have some "training" on the shouting/greetings. He said you get used to it and fall in with the way of doing things after that initial "training". Link to post Share on other sites
rach 1 Posted June 27, 2004 Share Posted June 27, 2004 I'd die if I had to do that..... Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts