The 'serious Japs' and Saravana Bhavan

A friend of mine had the following to say about Japan:

We visited Japan back in summer of 2005 (5 days on our way to Thailand). We picked Kyoto as our base and stayed with a local family (as paid guests in a very old classic Japanese house). We bought the Japan Rail pass and did mostly day trips. I am sure we did not do complete justice of visiting Japan, but it sure gave us a good flavor of the country. I personally did not care too much for Japan. People were not as warm as some of the other countries we visited. Very few people even smiled at us - which was very intriguing. Later we learned from the host family that it is ingrained in their culture to be very 'serious' as they get into middle and high school levels. Again this is just one data point. Japan was nice, well organized, fast trains, lots of old culture but never clicked for me!

And my response to him was this....

CK Sridhar had referred to Japanese being not so warm.....which is true to some extent in the sense, that you don't get a "Hi! How are you doing?" from a stranger who is absolutely unknown to you, and whom you just happen to see in the parking lot as you get off your car! That's an American custom to say 'hi' to anyone that comes across you.

The Japanese are generally serious, and they value privacy (theirs and yours) even in their limited space where one has to stay close to each other. In trains, where one sits face-to-face with other passengers, they close their eyes and fall into half-sleep, or begin reading a book (which usually comes with a wrap to let others not get distracted by the title).

A comparison of service in restaurants would tell you how customs are different in each country and why the term ''warm' could be subjective...

My daughter would enjoy the individual attention she gets in US restaurants -the waiters would take the order from each individual separately, asking her "What can I get for you, young lady?" ('young lady' was hardly 6 or 7 yr old then!). It is not a custom in US for the dad or mom to place the order for the whole family. The waiters also keep asking you "Is everything fine with you guys?" as & when they cross your table.

In Japan they bow and take your order politely; they don't come near your table once the items are served, except when you call them (in many restaurants by pressing the button in your table); they show up instantly then.

Back in India, in Saravana Bhavan, waiters used to tap the table with their fingers and ask you in a single word "enna?" while taking order. Most of them don't bother to utter even that single word; they simply raise their eyebrows -which interprets as 'enna vENum?..m'?

'Taste' of individuals would vary. I don't like the way waiters in US keep poking their nose even as you enjoy your food with your group. I do not expect/ like someone keep asking me " How is everything?" -all for the extra 15% tip that you must shell out from your pocket at the end! The Japanese style is good; they focus on taking the order & serving you in a timely manner and not intervening in your privacy thereafter. Tipping is unheard of in any restaurants in Japan.

I don't find fault with Saravana Bhavan staff though, whose service is quite OK to me. I don't necessarily expect the waiter to serve me food as if it was the most pleasant thing for him to do! I don't rate service by looking at the 'length' of smile in their face, or the fancy language they use, either!

And then came this message from Suri about modernisation in Saravana Bhavan...

That was a good comparison of the eating-out-experiences. I am not sure how accurate you were with respect to the Saravana Bhavans.

Earlier this year, the weekend following our reunion, Sivashankar had graciously taken a few of us (Suryanarayanan, Vishwakumar & myself) out to dinner, at the Saravana Bhavan  in Mylapore. (Vishwakumar must be a 'regular' at that place, because we were seated fairly quickly in spite
of the big line.) :-)
The place was clean and brightly-lit. There wasn't a necessity for the rapid-fire delivery of the day's menu/specials. They had menu cards. The biggest surprise though was when the waiter took our orders. He tapped it into his blue-tooth-enabled hand-held-device, which apparently sent the info. down to the
kitchen. The info. must have included our seat locations, because a different guy brought our orders, and he knew who had ordered what.

Vishwakumar also pointed out the hierarchy and responsibilities of the service folks. (If I remember correctly, lighter the shade of the uniform, further up the chain of command)

The food was pretty good. That 'sambar vadai' was spectacular. It's making my mouth water just thinking about it. It's lunch time here now, and am feeling very hungry.