Inconveniencing

My Jamaican friends once asked a Japanese friend, "What's the biggest sin in Japan?" The answer: "Inconveniencing other people." To be seen as a person who inconveniences others by being late, asking too much, etc. will get you a bad rep.



Somehow, saying "no" or "I don't know" fell into this category of inconvenience. Therefore instead of being told that you can't have your vacation days, you're told "I'll think about it." Learning to read between the lines becomes a necessity.

My least favorite time this pops up is with directions. It's very rare to find someone who will just tell you "Oh, sorry, I have no idea where that is." Instead, you're given a healthy dose of directions, and you only learn the directions are completely wrong when you've spent hours searching. I can't understand how giving false directions and wasting someone's time is seen as less inconvenient than a simple "no."

Julius came up with a great way to foil this; when asking where something is, point to the direction you know for damn sure it is not and say "Is it that way?" If the person says "Yes, that way, so many blocks..." you can just disregard anything they say. Brilliant!