31–40 of 175 posts
Phillipe the Original in downtown Los Angeles has used these as long as I can remember. Phillipe is an old school sandwich place (they claim to have invented the "French dip"), not a Japanese establishment. I wonder now why they're using them: I had mistakenly assumed it was some pre-WWII Western custom that they kept alive for that authentic vintage feel.
Department stores in the U.S. (At least in Minneapolis) used to ferry payment via baskets on wires from the clerk up to an accounting room where the money was counted, change made, and delivered back to the customer via the same contraption.
Interesting, do you have a source so I could learn more?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This comment only makes sense if you know what "gaijin" means, it appears to mean roughly "foreigner" (or more literally "outside person").
"alien" more correctly captures the connotation. "gaijin" is very much a derogatory word. "gaikokujin" (person from a different country) is more neutral.
Gaijin is slang. It's not necessarily used with a derogatory meaning. Also it's important to note that it's mostly used for white people, they'll never call a Chinese or Korean "gaijin" for example.
Pro tip: if you want to review the correct pronunciation of the word "gai-jin," skip the tray and hand your cash directly to the clerk.
So sometimes I get the worst of the both status there...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"alien" more correctly captures the connotation. "gaijin" is very much a derogatory word. "gaikokujin" (person from a different country) is more neutral.
Gaikokujin is indeed the correct word for foreigner. Gaijin is slang. It's not necessarily used with a derogatory meaning. Also it's important to note that it's mostly used for white people, they'll never call a Chinese or Korean "gaijin" for example.
come on, this is common in EU..Germany etc, too
Where have you seen this? I've lived in Berlin for six years and I have literally never encountered anything like it.
Something much more weird I think is the money envelopes. I once took classes by a Japanese lady who, the day before we would pay for the next month, gave us these envelopes the size of a bill and asked us to bring the money in them, said that Japanese never hand money directly, always in envelopes. The next day she took the envelopes and didn't even open them to count the money.
Is it possible that it could be related to change needing to be weighed to be determined legitimate, or simply as a way of measuring the amount? (like paying with gold dust in the Yukon or what have you) Beyond that I can see it being a result of extreme cultural stratification, as the article touches on - that it would be seen as demeaning for a higher-class person to put money directly into the lower-class person's…
The article says that during 1600-1870 most businesses operated on credit with semiannual account settlement. I'd think this would make quick-weigh gold-dust transactions pretty uncommon. :)
Phillipe the Original in downtown Los Angeles has used these as long as I can remember. Phillipe is an old school sandwich place (they claim to have invented the "French dip"), not a Japanese establishment. I wonder now why they're using them: I had mistakenly assumed it was some pre-WWII Western custom that they kept alive for that authentic vintage feel.
I was with my friend at a bar in Osaka, and we'd had a few. The waiter came over and set down a circular change tray. I being a little intoxicated assumed he wanted me to use a coaster, so I picked up my glass and set it on it. He was not amused by this and shot me a VERY stern look - and then it clicked. We left soon after, quite embarrassed.