Following Form

In Japan, there seems to be a correct way to do almost everything--and I mean everything! In earlier posts, I mentioned the difficulty I had in taking my shoes off and putting slippers on, eating food, bowing, among other things. I could not keep all of the "rules" straight and I was doomed for failure...or so it seemed. One "rule" that really gave me fits was how to correctly give money to the cashier in order to pay for something. How many of you have really given any thought to this? Well, in Japan, there is a small tray on the counter, specifically designed for the customer to place the money, which they slide to the cashier, who then puts the change back in the tray, and slides it back to the customer. The tray has raised rubber bumps in it, which makes it easier to pick up coins. With a tray, change is all in one place, in a nice, neat little container, like most things are in Japan. Or maybe it's because of the dirtiness of handling money and germs. Who knows? For some reason, I could just not get used to this and I was sometimes doing good just to give the cashier the proper amount of money (all of those zeros confused me sometimes....10,000 yen is roughly equal to $100).