Thursday, July 9, 2009

Bread, Rice, and Stereotypes.

I can't believe I just did that! I made the mistake of confirming their stereotypes. Ok, the general store lady comes to our office every day to sell snacks. It's bad enough that I regularly buy the peanut butter sandwich (yeah, no jelly, but I'm fine with that). Today, I bought some bread because I'm out back home. Well, big mistake, foreigner. The first thing out of her mouth is "You don't eat rice?" Which translates roughly to "Do you eat rice? Because I figured you ate bread for every meal, and since you are confirming my stereotype, I may as well ask if it's once a month or twice a month that you eat rice.

UGH! No! Especially because, if you know anything about me, I prefer rice to bread any day. Oh well, it's not like they would have believed me if I told them I eat rice with 2 of 3 meals every day anyways.
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About Me

Hi, I'm Greg, but you can call me by my Japanese name, Gureggu, if you'd like. I'm writing this blog to explain effective ways to do business with Japan and Japanese companies. Why? Japanese companies are notoriously difficult to understand, and doing business in Japan has a unique set of hurdles.

Why I'm qualified to write about Japan: I have worked in Japan for a total of 8 years. I worked sales at a Japanese import/export company (subsidiary of a much larger corporation) as the only foreigner in the company. Before that, I taught for 2 years at High Schools and 3 years teaching elementary and middle school in Aomori Prefecture. I have lived the life of a salaryman and experienced firsthand the institutions that shape Japanese people in their most formative years.