This used to bug me until my wife explained that the wife usually does the ordering for the husband, who, as the boss, is above such things like talking to waitstaff.

“Mou ichido” works great if it’s a case of “I just didn’t catch what you said.”

I guess I should have written this out more thoroughly in the video decription on the page for these videos; but this WASN’T supposed to be a REAL/PRO interview like the one Yamato Damacy did. I just wanted to record this for my own benefit just because I had been reading his site for a long time and I wanted to record what we were talking about (in case I forgot a couple questions to the answers I had), but then when I got back home I thought that since he had such a big fan base that I might as well cut it up and put it on my Youtube account for those fans to see.

So I just cut it up and put all of on the web because I didn’t care about it not being a serious interview, more of just a chance for the his readers to see a more recent video of him and also get a couple of those questions that aren’t answered on his website out of the way.

If you guys actually checked out my channel and see the other videos I have you might like them too

Stay Black JP readers

Thanks James and Clayton for putting this up

-Sam

Yeah, this does get annoying. You go into a restaurant, and the waiter there to greet you actually looks around or moves around you to speak to the Japanese person.

Ken – you might try something like “Mou ichido?”

Two decades and counting, I wouldn’t hold out much hope at this point. He’d lose his raison d’etre if he could get along without bitching.

But seriously, it will take more than copying the beard to get Debito depicted in a shabu-shabu tare commercial.

Whenever I go to a place that deals with international customers I’ll speak English as they need the practise more than me, so that doesn’t bother me. It’s the replying to my wife when I’m doing the talking that annoys me the most, but I’m too meek to say anything, and the wife would probably complain later about me making a scene!

Oh, and Tkyosam, get a video editor and cut the thing down to size! Or James, chop it down to Staying Black, the waitress, the chicken and the farting.

Yeah, I saw Debito speak to a group of CIRs in Kobe in 2000, and he speaks really fast – ridiculously fast – for some reason. A speech coach could help with that.

After seeing his actions with the waitress, it’s hard not to feel sorry for Debito, because it kind of reminds me of *me* in Japan at certain points of my life there. If you’re white or look like a “foreigner” (I like Debito’s “non-Japanese” phrase better), people are going to try to speak English with you. Depending on my mood, I could make it an issue and be rude with a waitress or whatever (at low points during my stay), or figure out a way to move past making an issue of it and also avoid being drawn into impromptu English conversation practice by service staff who were being paid to help *me*.

I realized that I wanted to enjoy living in Japan, and having nasty little battles with “English vampires”, who are usually just slightly naive and confused, but generally pretty sweet-natured, was just counterproductive.

Hopefully Debito can learn some coping mechanisms.

That beard is re god damn dickulous! If your GF tells you it looks good she’s lying to you.

X

I think the waitress was very nice, and her English was decent enough. I would have spoken back in English, as long as she understood me. Anyway, in that situation I would have said, “Nihongo de iidesuyo.” (Japanese is fine.)

Did he intentionally say it rude? Or is his Japanese not really that good? She was probably sent over by her manager because she speaks English. Most people would think that was good service. Like hotels always have English speaking staff.

Here’s an unwritten rule everyone should know: don’t piss off the waitstaff. They can do some nasty and disgusting things — and you’ll never know about it.

I do applaud James for sitting through the entire thing. I only got halfway through the first one. 70 minutes of that? I very nearly turned it off when the interviewer was doing his Ali G impersonation.

Plus my salarymen friends said that wasn’t uncommon too…

Come on Neil, we are both too sexy to need to go to those clubs anywayzs :p

I don’t get the logic behind the excuse, “I came here before the manga boom.” Doesn’t that mean Debito was here for the manga boom?

“All I need are some tasty waves and a cool buzz.”

PS: For those who want the chicken and not the main meal, skip to the latter parts of the video.

That said, I turned it off after Debito started ranting about his experiences at a Niigata company twenty years ago. The guy has worked a total of three years in the private sector.

-I usually post videos on this site, which is why I have blogged about this and not some of the other things you have posted recently. Much of serious things you say in the video has already been covered on your site in the past. If I had written a summary of the main points covered, many people would have simply skipped the video because it doesn’t offer much new in that respect. My highlights were meant to draw people into the video by mentioning some of the odd/funny moments of the interview.

Man, I gotta put people eating chicken in more of my videos

I do enjoy some of his comments though. There was info on your rights if you get stopped by the police which I thought was quite useful but when he compares gaijin to the n word he loses all credibility.

Point to it if you like, but represent the issues raised more accurately.