Nigerians: Multi-Lingual Ninjas of Japan

I do not know any Nigerians (to my knowledge). I am not well versed in their culture, general attitude, or behavior, and even if I was, I wouldn't be able to lump them in all together.

However, the Nigerians in Japan are crazy.

Now, if you're wondering why, I'll tell you. What these folks (men) do is hang out in shopping districts (and club districts, which I don't go to) in groups of four to six. They speak English, Japanese, their native tongue, and I've also hear french. What they do is shout and gang around certain people to get them to go to their clubs or go to their clothing stores.

Yes, it's just as weird as it sounds.

Now, they aren't super aggressive (to me anyway, but I'm six feet tall, so...), but I've heard they can be and I have to say, in a country that may already be wary of black people, they're certainly not helping. Nor would I think that they're helping other Nigerians. *shrug* Just my opinion.

It snowed today. Not all that heavy. No pictures because it wasn't "pretty" snow. It just meant everyone was walking around with umbrella's and being careful in stores because of the slick floors. I went to Harajuku (been there once before) and was surprised how crowded it was for being a "crappy" day. It was nice though.

Needless today, I will not be going out for some time, nor will I be shopping for some time. I don't know what's in the water in this country, but it's caused me to lose all of my common sense and self control. When in the world did I become a shopping, girly girl?  I did buy a nice pin for my coat (pictured to the right). About five bucks. Along with a bag (also five bucks). It has the english flag on it. Gotta love Japan for loving England.

One thing I will miss about Japan is their customer service. They are all about pleasing their customers, and I mean ALL ABOUT IT.

Customer Service Experience: 
At one store, I was looking at an item and I went and asked if they had "more" or "bigger" sizes (I ask this no matter what). The woman, with a huge smile, said, "Free size!" and proceeded to walk with me back to the item. She took it down and tugged it, showing that it stretched, exclaiming, "daijyoubu, daijyoubu (It's okay, it's okay)." She also showed me different colors and styles they had of the same dress, which I thought was pretty nice of her. I eventually said, "Eh, alright. May I try it on?" She eagerly showed me to the room and when I accidently banged on the door, she (who I assume was standing outside of the door) asked if I was alright. When I opened the door with the item on, asking how it was (they friend I was with was out of sight), I saw that it was actually a different girl, who proceeded to give me two big thumbs up and say, "Ii desu! Kawaii! (It's good! (It's) cute!)."

When I changed back into my clothes and left the room, another girl asked if I like it, and I said yes (could look awful, but my like of the item and the enthusiastic thumbs up made me want to buy it). She said, "Oh, underneath?" I know that this was simply a way to get me to buy more, but I thought it was nice that she proceeded to match up the item with some other things in the store to make a full outfit (I only bought the one item).

I was actually on the fence about the item I had and left, but returned a few minutes later. One of the previous girls was still there and she smiled and just held up the item for me. When I went to the register, the woman there was very nice, said my coin purse was cute and all of the clerks there were very nice as I left the store.

I'm going to miss that in the states. Japanese are so eager to please their customers. Yes, it's to boost sales, but good customer service means so much to me. It makes me recommend stores to my friends, and it makes me bad mouth them for YEARS if it's poor. I have been to this same exact store in a different part of Japan and thought that they had the worst attitudes and thought they were all rather nasty (at least to me). This store changed my opinion of them 100%. See what good customer service can do?

I have had people find other items for me, make outfits for me, help me try stuff on, and just generally be super, super nice, most of the time without me even asking. Even the people in the 7/11 will heat up your meals for you, free of charge and not give you a weird face if you don't understand them right away. I'm going to miss that when I'm back in the states, getting nasty, annoyed looks from the woman that works at the market. I'm going to miss that a lot.

Well, I will be trapped in the dorm all weekend doing work. 3D animation just picked up as well as all of my other classes (Oh goody...). Can you believe I've already been here a month?

Wish me luck.