#tokyo

In Paris the cashiers sit rather than stand. They run your goods over a scanner, tally up the price, and then ask you for exact change. The story they give is that there aren't enough euros to go around. "The entire EU is short on coins." And I say, "Really?" because there are plenty of them in Germany. I'm never asked for exact change in Spain or Holland or Italy, so I think the real problem lies with the Parisian cashiers, who are, in a word, lazy. Here in Tokyo they're not just hard working but almost violently cheerful. Down at the Peacock, the change flows like tap water. The women behind the registers bow to you, and I don't mean that they lower their heads a little, the way you might if passing someone on the street. These cashiers press their hands together and bend from the waist. Then they say what sounds to me like "We, the people of this store, worship you as we might a god. ↗

— David Sedaris

#cashiers #europe #euros #hospitality #japan

I'm not afraid to look like a big, hairy, smelly, foreign devil in Tokyo, though I do my best not to, I really do. ↗

— Anthony Bourdain

#best #big #devil #foreign #hairy

After the atomic bombs were dropped, the war ended and we went into Tokyo Bay with the rest of the fleet, the Missouri and the rest of them, while they signed the terms of surrender that ended the war. ↗

— Barney Ross

#atomic #atomic bombs #bay #bombs #dropped

Working in Tokyo has convinced me that, contrary to what people think, it is actually one of the world's most beautiful cities. ↗

— Tadao Ando

#beautiful #cities #contrary #convinced #me

But Italy is not an intellectual country. On the subway in Tokyo everybody reads. In Italy, they don't. Don't evaluate Italy from the fact that it produced Raphael and Michelangelo. ↗

— Umberto Eco

#evaluate #everybody #fact #intellectual #italy

I met John Lennon and he was with his wife in Tokyo. I met him there. ↗

— Bryan Ferry

#his #i #john #john lennon #lennon