It was one of those days today that left me feeling pretty frustrated and unsatisfied.
Once again, I had to admit to myself that even after several years here in Japan, there are too many times when I have to rely on the help of others, simply because of my lack of language skills.
I cannot say now that I am not able to communicate with most people, but there are still too many situations in which I can't express myself in the way I would like to.
Like that day, for example.
I had to take my tablet, which I bought 11 months earlier, back to the store because it had turned itself off and on again several times for no reason. Then it was sent to the manufacturer for testing, where of course no defect had been found.
Most Japanese would be satisfied with such asnwer, just to avoid any conflict, and take their faulty device home and then perhaps continue to moan in silence. But if you, like me, don't want to accept such an explanation, you have to deal with the staff of the electronics store. That's how it would be in "good old Germany", but at least I would be able to have such a discussion myself. It always depends on the right mix of diplomacy and insistence, so as not to be fobbed off with a nothing at the end.
So now I tried to do that here in Japan!
It's not like I'm super experienced in such situations, I simply lack the vocabulary to express myself appropriately or to even understand the answers to my questions and arguments correctly. Even the fact that I was not alone was finally not really helpful. If you express yourself through an "interpreter", something always gets lost. In such situations, most Japanese try to take the path of least resistance and to keep the conflict as small as possible.
Since no fault was allegedly found in the device, the makers warranty naturally does not apply. And even the shops stuff pretends to not even know the Japanese word for Gewährleistungspflicht (seller's warranty) - KASHITANPO (瑕疵担保, so they continued talking their way out of of this.
In matters like this I do not like to have to be represented by others. I prefer to try to resolve such issues myself. Of course, my way is not always right or succesful, but I have usually done well with it. And if things go wrong, I can at least put the blame on myself.
The helplessness to be somehow at the mercy of such situations and to know no way out is very frustrating and always brings me down. Of course I look for the blame then also with myself, nobody foreced me to settled in Japan. And shouldn't I already have perfected my skills in the Japanese language?
But I also know that here in Japan the word "consumer protection" is not necessarily part of the common language. The customer is king here, but only until he pays and leaves the store. Everything that comes after that is a completely different story.
To all those who always complain and grumble so much about the EU, in terms of consumer and customer rights you are light years ahead of the rest of the world. Even if you don't want to believe it.
Anyway, that was totally unsatisfactory but to not totally spoil the mood for the coming weekend I remembered a song and I starting singing in my head.
Always look at the bright sight of life!