In Japan, the service is amazing, and you don't tip.
If you leave money on the table, the server will chase you down, to give it back.
In the US, you get shit service, and they give you the stinkeye, if you don't tip at least 20%.
In Japan, the service is amazing, and you don't tip.
If you leave money on the table, the server will chase you down, to give it back.
In the US, you get shit service, and they give you the stinkeye, if you don't tip at least 20%.
Happened to me once in Thailand, I was very surprised.
Truly USA is an overpriced country with the only good thing being that jobs are high paying… and that’s it.
I think the best thing in life is to have a remote job somehow + travel 50% of the time + stay w friends and family 50% of the time
> USA is an overpriced country
The USA is ranked sixth in purchasing power in the world, meaning we are definitionally underpriced.
The countries that have even more purchasing power are: Norway, Macau, Bermuda, Singapore, and Luxembourg.
https://www.worlddata.info/cost-of-living.php
Let's see... two tiny countries that specialize in finance, a city-state that is the historic trade hub for the region, another that is the historic gambling hub for the region, and a low-population country that won the oil lottery and has been smart enough not to let its residents get high on their own supply, thus avoiding the worst of "the resource curse."
Idk, as an European, coming to US 20/10 years ago was cheaper than traveling Europe.
Today? You're easily paying 3/400$ per night in Manhattan and other cities. Same is true for dining, museums, transport.
Everything is insanely expensive compared to what it was just few years ago.
Services are even more expensive.
I was in Japan last month, tipped 4 times, once it ended up awkward with the waiter insisting me to take it back, the other 3 times they accepted it gladly and thanked.
Why would you want to spread tipping culture?
Yes this is so cringe, but it makes me kind of laugh. Of all the things the Western world historically imposed on Asia, it makes me laugh this is what made me feel is most cringeworthy as of recent.
Please keep your tip customs out of our culture. Next time just say thank you several times to show you appreciate them.
I don't tip for the sake of tipping, I do it when I receive a more than excellent job.
"When in Rome, do as the Romans do."
Times are a changin’…
I wouldn’t be surprised if they are being instructed to accept tips, in order to keep the customer happy.
I think culture is changing and the waiters are increasingly immigrants.
I don't know if that's true for Japan. The only non-Japanese folks I knew, over there, were Chinese, and they weren't exactly the types of folks that waited tables.
In recent years Japan's immigrant population increased by 500 to 1000 people *every single day*.
Many of them end up in hospitality, especially in touristic places, due to different reasons, but very importantly, immigrants from south Asia generally speak English fluently, something Japanese people rarely do.
I've seen plenty of "japanese" restaurants in Shinjuku where not a single member of the staff was japanese.
Another place where you're gonna see plenty of immigrants are all convenience stores.