Thursday, February 21, 2002
Disclaimer: Below is a story I got from Justin's Links - Proxy Pilgrimage?. To Justin, I'm sorry about quoting the whole thing. I was looking for a way to link to this particular entry but I couldn't think of how to do it. Anyway, if you want to read about his adventures as he visits different parts of Japan, check out his website.
At many hotels in Japan, the mini-refrigerators have sensors built in, so if you remove one of the snacks or beverages, the front desk immediately knows about it. And immediately after you remove said snack or beverage, the slot immediately locks so you can not replace it.
Ayako and I were staying at a love hotel in Shibuya and she went to inspect the snacks. She pulled out some salami in a can and found she couldn't return it. She took out a Calpis calcium drink that she did imbibe. She left for work early the next morning and alone I went to the front desk to return the key and resolve these matters.
"Please guest sir, 500 yen."
"Ahh, yes 500 yen. But you see, please we did not eat the snack, we only drink that drink."
"Well in the refrigerator there is a sensor"
"Please wait"
I figured a quick return trip to the room, returning with unopened snack in hand would resolve the matter. Upon reentering the room I found the refrigerator door had been remotely locked!
I returned to the front desk with my hat in my hands,
"Okay you have won. I will pay."
"Yes, okay 500 yen, thank you. You see there is a sensor in the refrigerator and we can not argue with the sensor."
"Yes, but we made a mistake, we did not eat the snack, please believe me!" and I gave them the money (nearly 4$).
Please believe me, in Japanese, is "Shinjite kudasai" something I have never said but I should be able to grammatically construct. Instead, flustered and frustrated at the front desk, I said, "shinde kudasai" which translates to "please die!"
They said "yes thank you" from behind the black glass and gave me my change.
At many hotels in Japan, the mini-refrigerators have sensors built in, so if you remove one of the snacks or beverages, the front desk immediately knows about it. And immediately after you remove said snack or beverage, the slot immediately locks so you can not replace it.
Ayako and I were staying at a love hotel in Shibuya and she went to inspect the snacks. She pulled out some salami in a can and found she couldn't return it. She took out a Calpis calcium drink that she did imbibe. She left for work early the next morning and alone I went to the front desk to return the key and resolve these matters.
"Please guest sir, 500 yen."
"Ahh, yes 500 yen. But you see, please we did not eat the snack, we only drink that drink."
"Well in the refrigerator there is a sensor"
"Please wait"
I figured a quick return trip to the room, returning with unopened snack in hand would resolve the matter. Upon reentering the room I found the refrigerator door had been remotely locked!
I returned to the front desk with my hat in my hands,
"Okay you have won. I will pay."
"Yes, okay 500 yen, thank you. You see there is a sensor in the refrigerator and we can not argue with the sensor."
"Yes, but we made a mistake, we did not eat the snack, please believe me!" and I gave them the money (nearly 4$).
Please believe me, in Japanese, is "Shinjite kudasai" something I have never said but I should be able to grammatically construct. Instead, flustered and frustrated at the front desk, I said, "shinde kudasai" which translates to "please die!"
They said "yes thank you" from behind the black glass and gave me my change.
What's my age again? I was talking to a German guy last night over icq when I accidentally let it slip that I studied a bit about German government and politics when I was in college (I took up political science). "Oh yeah?" he says, and proceeds to ask me questions. Halfway through the interrogation I suddenly realized that we were referring to two very different things: The Germany I studied was just half of the germany today. Oops. What year was I in college? When did the Berlin wall come down? Sometimes I feel like I just got out of college last year. Last night, I realized that college was like a million years ago. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
P.S. Is Helmut Kohl still alive?
P.S. Is Helmut Kohl still alive?
And another one...
Hey, there goes another one...
The Germans are online tonight. I didn't feel like sleeping just yet so I got on icq, looking for someone to chat with. The chat partner search engine kept turning up Germans. I've seen more than ten in the last hour. What could be happening in Germany? Have they declared a national holiday for chatting?
Wednesday, February 20, 2002
Wednesday, February 20, 2002
This one is about censorship again. Thanks to sitemeter, I get an idea of who are visiting my site and where they come from. Imagine my shock then when I saw a uap.edu.ph in the list. Uap.edu is where I work, by the way. I racked my brain trying to remember to whom I gave my url. I can only think of one person, and she has assured me that she hadn't been to my site lately. I wonder who it could be. I just hope this person won't blab it all over campus as I sometimes write about people from work here.
Since I found out that someone from work reads me, I've been skulking around the campus like a murder suspect evading his warrant of arrest. I guess this means that I'll have to be extra careful about what I say here. I haven't any idea of who ms/mr uap.edu.ph might be and, until then, keeping to nice and safe stuff is what I have to do.
Censorship has been on my mind lately. In the past few weeks since I've been working on this site, I've found myself consciously censoring what I say. You see, because of my excitement at finally having this site up and running, I've given the url to some of my friends. Now I have to watch out for what I say because I might offend them (or at least say things that I don't want them to know). But because of this self-censorship, I feel like I'm not really being me. I feel like I'm always looking behind my back, conscious of side-swiping somebody else. For instance, something unpleasant happened to me a while back. I wanted to write about it here so I would remember what happened and how I felt. I couldn't though. I'm worried that one of the person's concerned might read it. Things are better between us now and I don't want to have to deal with the awkwardness that might result from that person reading about it. Sometimes I hate it that I am so concerned about how the people around me might feel that I end up sacrificing my comfort for the sake of their's. I can't help it though. This is the way I'm built.
Monday, February 18, 2002
Monday, February 18, 2002
