Just In: People Screwing Up in Japan

Yesterday, went shopping in Sakae with my fiancee and bro-in-law. Just another busy, busy Saturday. Folks everywhere! Draining, really. So afterwards: we go to get pizza. Not just any regular ol' pizza, but the locally renowned Pizza Salvatore, famous for its gourmet pizzas and nice atmosphere. Actually, the pizza was ok, almost too thin for my likings, and the place was kind of loud. And despite River Cuomo's Ivy League track record, I don't particularly find Weezer to be the kind of music to play at a high class joint. Anyway! The bill came, three of us, 9340 Yen. ($91!) Ouch.

This didn't seem right. I had a rough idea that we would break the 6000 yen barrier, but didn't think we had gone that far. So! I checked the receipt. Sure enough, someone had slipped in another 1600 yen charge that was totally not ours. (In lieu of putting down a charge for 580 yen). Anyway, we got our money back, but there really was no profuse bowing and apologizing, which you almost have to expect here in Japan.

Then! I had heard of this great bar with a really cool record collection, something like 5000 records. Sounds pretty sweet. Name of the place is Heaven's Door. We knew the rough area where it was located, but didn't know the full name, so we called up a directory information service. They gave us the phone number and address, and we called up a taxi to take us there.

The cabbie dropped us off at the approximate location, said he didn't know the right place. So we walked. And searched. And stopped in about 4 different convenient stores trying to find the right area on the map. Keep in mind, they don't typically have street names here in Japan, so it's a royal pain to try and find some places.

Eventually, we found the area where it should have been, based upon the address we got. We had been calling the number we got, but to no avail. Eventually, we came to the realization that either this place no longer exists, or we otherwise had bad directions. So we went to another izakaya instead, then caught a taxi / train / ride back home.

And upon looking it up on the net, the directory service had sent us on a complete wild goose chase for a neighborhood spot that contained a parking lot.

Twice in one day people screwed us here. What a day!