INDEX
I would say, "French people are stingy". For example, in Egypt you have to pay a fee of
pictures when you enter in museums or pyramids. When I participated to
French group for a day in Egypt, I noticed they never pay it even if it
cost about one dollar while Japanese people often think, "This must be
the only chance". And French people take pictures from outside of
territory when they can. French
people take their time to buy something, very long time. To find a present
to our friend who has a baby, I went with one of my French friend to
children’s' cloths shop in Paris. She spent 2 hours to buy 2
cloths. While 2 hours, she was discussing with salesperson "Do you
have different color?” "I prefer to more casual
one", "How much is this one?" and so on. As it was a quite
small shop, we found only one client during our shopping. During 2 hours,
the salesperson was always with us. I have to say Japanese people are quite contrary. I went out for sightseeing in Paris with middle-aged
Japanese tourist to guide them. The Eiffel Tour, Arc de
Triomphe, Notre Dame. We also went to Louis Vuiton, which Japanese tourists
can't miss any more in Paris. They bought bags for their daughters or
wives. One of them found a Japanese girl is going to buy bags and asked her
"They are beautiful. How much do they cost?” The girl answered "I don'
know". She bought them without asking the price (or she
can't). In fact her 2 bags coasted 5100 francs (USD700). French people
never pay 5100 francs without asking the price. 80% of the clients in the shop, situated in
Champs-Elysees, were Japanese. They say 40% of total production of Louis
Viton is for Japanese market. At luxury shops in France, salespersons take responsibility
from explication about articles to packing. To be served by a certain
salesperson, you have to make a queue. Not only in this Louis Viton, but
other ones in department stores, you can find a lot of Japanese making line
who are seen by French with strange eyes. After an hour to wait, you have to be patient more.
All the articles are not displayed so salespersons go to depot to pick them
up. You have to expect 2 hours, at least. Nevertheless, my Japanese bought one by one. The
salesperson looked at them with air of despising, even if it was not so
evident. After the long shopping, we took a lunch in a cafe of
Champs-Elysees. The waiter who served as was kind enough but another young
waiter was despised evidently with his eyes to the Japanese with bags of
Louis Viton. As I asked, "What's the matter?” he stopped it. Especially in tourist places where they don't have to
make any effort to have clients, you can find a lot of French like him. It
is true that we Japanese have to change ourselves, but I also think such an
attitude of him is one of discriminations. French text Japanese text
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