Gotta Love Those Tokyo Moments...

Thought I'd just share some of my recent "Tokyo Moments"... they just seem to have every day!

Last week, I made my first trip to IKEA. WOW - I quickly understood why people fall instantly in love with this place! Lots of fun things to see and do. Here's the fun part (not really)... Patti and I walked around the second floor first - when suddenly I realized that we were going against the flow of traffic... apparently there are arrows on the floor showing you the direction to walk! We were living out our daily metaphor... acting as fish swimming upstream! Afterwards, we went for lunch at the cafeteria - we followed all of the rules, got our tray, and cart to carry our tray, and proceeded to order our food. I pointed to the ham meal and said I would like the "Ham" and was met with a confused look - I said it again, pointed to the picture, and again confusion... just as I was about to change my order, another woman behind the counter said "h-ah-m" and then suddenly everyone knew what I wanted... As the lady got my food, they all just sat and chuckled and chuckled at this misunderstanding... but I did get my "h-ah-m" and now know how I should order it next time!

Friday night, I went to a toy store to do some shopping. If you spent oer 5000 yen (roughly $50), you were able to get a free die cast car. In the process of the 3 people helping me... one to ring things up, one to wrap, and one to pack the bag... someone forgot to put my car in the bag. I didn't realize this until Saturday and had plans of just stopping back in and asking for the car. Well... Sunday morning around 10 AM the doorbell rang and it was a delivery company... he had me sign for a small package and as I opened it, I realized that it was the car along with a note profusely apologizing for the error! I don't think there's one store in America that would go out of their way to send a customer a free gift!

As if that wasn't enough, around 11 AM the bell rang again and it was another delivery man... this time with a box from amazon in Japan - I had placed an online order with them on Saturday afternoon around 4 PM, and by 11 AM the next day, I had it in my hands! Talk about service!!!

These are just two examples of everyday life here - either its so precise and conforming that it's staggeringly funny, or it's so efficient and timely that you spend the rest of your day touched by the extra effort that was shown.