How to be a Good Customer for Dummies 101

I work in a retail company and in the most cursed department ever in retail company: Sales. Retail job sucks. Sales department in retail, is sucker than sucks. It's all result, everything you've worked hard for "supposed to be reflected" on the sales report. In the end, we talk sales. we breath sales. we think sales. maybe we even poo sales. 

Beside sales, the number two most annoying thing about working in store is how do you interact with customer. and I know you all fellow retail worker on sales department feeling, bro fist. Customer can be as kind as angels or, as annoying as Lord Voldemort.  

The more we are in contact with customer, the more of little things annoyed us.

Here, I try to represent all the retail worker complain from a shop assistant pov about customer. And hey, you, customer-ean who read this article, no offense, but yeah, this is what several of you did to us. And we kindly ask you to understand our POV. Mutual benefit, right???

For example:

1. If you ask for a stock of one item, don’t expect us to find it in 3 minutes. We got a (usually) messed and boxed up warehouse back there, and it takes us quite time and energy to remove all the boxes, take your items, and put all the scrambled boxes in the place again for God sake. Expect 10 minutes.
2. Even if you change your mind while we’re out of searching for stocks, at least tell another shop assistant that you’ll leave so we won’t have to search you like mad in the store. It’s annoying.
3. Put things back on where they belong. Don’t have to be so neat is ok, it helps us a lot.
4. Some of the complicated things we have to do even it takes your time, is just a decided procedure from our store. For example procedure for sending things, building furniture, etc. We’re not wasting your time, we only do our work. So please don’t be grumpy if it takes a little bit of your time.
5. Take off your earphone when you pay for your things in register. Sometimes we have to ask a robotic question like, do you have point card or something and we are SO PISSED if we have to repeat it several times just because you’re in the middle of hearing good music. We repeat this entire question like more than 50 times a day dude. Give us a break.
6. If you want to just pay and leave at register, at least give us time to count your money first whether it’s the exact amount or not. Don’t just throw away your money and go. First, we’re not vending machine. Second, if your money is not enough and you left already, we’re fucked up.
7. And in reverse, it is okay to take your time in register during payment. Taking out money, putting in the receipt etc. Actually, we quite don’t care as long as it doesn’t take sooo long.
8. Don’t expect us to be 100% perfect of everything. Knowing every single bit section of things, 100% perfect register machine operation, etc. Sometimes it takes us time too to learn, especially the newcomer.
9. A smile on us on register, say “thank you” or a little bit of kindness will boost up our mood for a whole day.
10. Customers always win. We’re not even defended by our manager (most of the time). So, do us a little bit of favor by holding back unneeded anger or complaint for yourself (unless our services like really, really sucks).

And the list still go on though. Can't write it all here.

But hey, fellow retail worker! please share too your complain about customer below!! I'm very interested to hear all of unthinkable POV that maybe I have never experienced before!!

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5 days 4 Night Kyoto Itinerary (D5)

Actually for the fifth day, we only went for one last temple before we ought to catch our afternoon bus on Kyoto Station. We went for Toji-ji and spend around 1 hour there.

The inside is quite magnificent but unfortunately we were not allowed to take photo (and same rules mostly apply to other temples too.)

And then we went back to Kyoto station and went back for good to Tokyo.

I can say I am very, very, very, very satisfied with my 5D4N trip!! I feel most of the time we spent it effectively, and we didn't spend so much money at all too!!

This is my whole expense for the whole 5D4N trip (1 person):

• Bus (round trip, 3.500 yen one way)          7.000 yen
• Food                                                               15.497 yen

We eat simple breakfast like bread and milk for morning, and eat quite generous on lunch and dinner. Although we ate around 2 times sukiya (cheap gyudon) because we didn’t know what else to eat on that time, but this expense is quite generous. This already included all the snacks such as ice cream, meat bun, etc

• Hotel (5D4N)                                                   14.640 yen

We rent one room for three person, with heater, inside bedroom, small kitchen and even free rental yukata! Unfortunately I forgot the name of the hotel..

• Souvenirs                                                         5.310 yen

This is Yatsuhashi that I brought for my colleagues in office.

•  Train, Bus transport                                       4.320 yen

All in, including transport to and from Nara, Arashiyama etc.

• Tickets to temples                                          4.100 yen
• Miscellanous (souvenir for myself)             5.350 yen

I like to buy refrigerator magnets for some reason.. and I bought quite a lot. And this is included other shopping too I didn't quite remember what did I buy..

TOTAL                                                                    56.917 yen

So cheap right!!!! At first I expect it will be around 100.000 yen but eventually we got it cheaper than expected. I think if you can save more on shopping, It will be even cheaper than mine.

I found out that there’s nothing much to buy in Kyoto rather than Tokyo. Kyoto is perfect to enjoy scenery and take photos, while if you intent to go shopping, just spend one week on Tokyo and you’ll robbed out for sure. Or maybe Osaka. So sad at that time we haven’t had enough time to go to Osaka. Tight on schedule, tight on budget.

But next time surely I will go to Osaka to go to Universal Studio of Japan for sure!!!! 

And almost forgot!! Here are some tips to you for your Kyoto trip if you interested:

• Most of the temples close after 17.00 or sometimes earlier, for god sake. And have ticket fee too. So go check before you went all out and disappointed.
•  Try yatsuhashi. The triangle small cake with different flavor. They got the grilled and hard one and the "nama"/raw like soft cake. I like the “nama” better. Best for omiyage. Japanese said if you buy yatsuhashi for omiyage, they directly know that you had a trip to Kyoto.
•   Watch Memoirs of a Geisha first before go Kyoto. It's all very Kyotoooooooo for god sake and they cover all the best spots of Kyoto if you interested in searching for the details.
• Try explore area around Gion, so many interesting places and restaurant can be found. And Geisha hunting too. I saw one REAL GEISHA and it’s indescribable.  It’s very... inhuman. How can something be so pretty and perfect...
• Eat yudofu. Boiled tofu. Literally just boiled tofu, but its Kyoto's big hit ever.
• Most temple in Kyoto is world heritage, even the lousy one. So pick the really recommended one or it will not be worth it.

Okay then.. This is it. The final post for my Kyoto trip last year! I know that my post is very compact (like, straightforward and quite rushed out in the making) but however if you have any question about details I didn’t insert it here, please don’t hesitate to ask! Put a comment below and I will reply as soon as I can!

Sincerely yours.

And if you want to read the other 2 post related to this Kyoto trip, here are the part 1 and part 2.

5 days 4 Night Kyoto Itinerary (D3 and D4)

Here we go!! Continuing to the second part of my Kyoto Trip! For the next two days, my itinerary is down below.

Day 3

Kinkakuji

Ryoanji

Arashiyama : Tenryu-ji, Bamboo Path, Togetsukyo bridge

Day 4

Fushimi Inari Taisha

Nara: Todaiji, Kasuga Taisha, Heijo Palace

Starting our day 3, again by bus we went to Kinkakuji for around 40 min.

Literally there’s nothing there except the beautiful golden pavilion of Kinkakuji. The weather was nice at that time.

From Kinkakuji, we went to Ryoanji by walking for around 15 minutes I think, a temple that is famous for its zen garden. A little bit disappointed, because we expect a much bigger garden while in reality it’s quite small. So much for an expectation huh. But I love how they set the garden just beside a classic traditional Japanese tatami room. Unfortunately they forbid us to stepped in.

Finish with Ryoanji, the most exciting travel part begin!! We walk from Ryoanji to the nearest station for Keifuku Railways and from there we went directly to Arashiyama. The station was so in-the-middle-of-nowhere. I like that kind of feeling, contrast with the over-crowded ambience of Tokyo. Why everyone go to Tokyo?? Why?? The train has a very antique ambiance also.

Arashiyama is known for its bamboo path. Even when we reach Arashiyama station, it’s all bamboo nuances.

From station we directly go to the Tenryuji.

And on the back of the Tenryuji, is the bamboo path that I’ve been wanting to go to!!! It’s been ages since I really want to go here!! Took a lot of selfie here but of course I cannot post all what...

Finish with the temples and bamboo path, we kinda just strolling around Arashiyama. It was very exciting since along the road there are so much omiyage shop (souvenir shop) so we shopped there quite a lot, to bring back to Tokyo.

We ate yudoufu too, boiled tofu, the special dish of Kyoto..

See fake Geisha.. Usually its tourist dressed up as geisha. We know it’s fake because we have seen the REAL ONE and the big difference is how they walk. One see and you will know hahahaha. Real geisha take small tiny angelic step, like they were flying while walking. These two... never mind ah.

I saw one store I think, offering Geisha makeup, clothes rental + photo studio + 1 day experience as Geisha for around 12.000 yen until 20.000 yen depends on the clothes I think?? But so expensive wtf I cannot even...

Okay. We continue to walk along infamous Togetsukyo bridge..

Take photos with the yatsuhashi (famous Kyoto omiyage) iconic lady, Yuko.

Accepted the fact that we were quite exhausted at that time (all the tiredness accumulated from the first day), we went back quite fast for that day and had a somewhat simple beer party at our hotel. We slept early because the next day will be a heavier journey to Nara. Yay!

And that’s the end of our third day!

Our fourth day, as mentioned before, we went quite far from Kyoto. We went until Nara. However in the middle, we visited Fushimi Inari Taisha that is famous for its 1000 red gate along the mountain (it’s like one way to Nara, but this temple is our top priority too).

This place is one of my bucket list of my life. Since I saw the movie, memoirs of a Geisha, I really want to visit this place. This is the photos from the main gate, the beginning of the 1000 red gate and the red gates itself.

It seems that the sacred God in here is a fox God or something. They have foxes statues everywhere. Even the wish-plate is fox head shape! So cute! We brought the wish-plate for 500 yen here, wrote our wish on the back of this fox-shaped wood plate and decorate the fox faces as creative as possible! Everyone fox is different it was so unique.

Finish with Fushimi Inari Taisha, didn’t want to waste time we went straight away for Nara. Nara is famous for its wild but friendly deer all over the place!

We went to Toudaiji Temple in Nara. SOOOOOOO HUGEEEEE see the human and building ratio wtf

And another temple nearby called Kasuga Taisha.

After that we went by bus to a site called Heijo Palace. This is a palace that was used as a headquarters for several years when Nara was still the center of government before they moved it to Tokyo. This palace site is so big, you can see from the photo I took. The first photo is the main gate, and the 2 next is the main castle from faraway and closer look. It took around 10 minutes more to walk from main gate the main castle.

We take a little sneak peek inside the palace and I took photos from the palace veranda.

A site guide told us that long ago, between the main gate and main castle, there used to be a lot of buildings that supported the castle, making it one big castle site. However due to earthquake or renovation or something (FORGOT..man...), they lost it and only maintain the two main buildings, the gate and the castle itself. It’s very… majestic.

I can say Kudos to all the temples (and castles) in Nara. The magnificent level is out of mind, especially Todaiji Temple is so frickin big even it’s so hard to fit it on one camera screen. However one of the inconveniences is the transportation system is somewhat worse than Kyoto, so mostly we walk from one place to another. But that’s still fine because while we walk, we enjoy all the scenery and calm ambience of Kyoto that can never be found in Tokyo.

And Nara summed up my fourth day of Kyoto trip. Time so fast flying, and that night we start packaging and have this unneeded mellow feeling that our holiday is soon coming to an end… This mellow yet satisfied feeling. How to say?

However see you on part three soon! I will tell you about my overall budget plus several tips too!! Hope it will be worth it!!

And if you want to read the other 2 post related to this Kyoto trip, here are the part 1 and part 3.

5 days 4 Night Kyoto Itinerary (D1 and D2)

I know this is rather late, but I really want to post about my 5D4N itinerary of Kyoto last year. It was such a great trip and I can't wait to go there once again if I have the time to. It was such a long time ago so I might be forgetting several details like name of places, prices etc, however I will try to write this as informative and as fun as I can!

This is the simple list of my two days itinerary.

Day 1

Higashi Honganji Temple

Nishi Honganji Temple

Nijo-jo

Yasaka Shrine

Gion (Shirokawa Area)

Day 2

Sanjusangendo Temple

Kiyomizu Dera

Nene no Michi

Ginkakuji

Philosopher’s Path

Nanzenji

Gion (Hanakimozawa Area)

Here I am starting for the flow of day 1 in Kyoto!

From Tokyo to Kyoto, me and my other 2 friends took a night bus from Yoyogi station from around 00.00 am and stop directly at Kyoto Station in the morning around 07.00. The exciting thing about taking the bus is, the bus has to stop several times to have a rest, and one of the resting area is around Fuji Mountain! But I didn't drop off from the bus to explore at that time because it's still so cold I cannot take it. Even when we reach Kyoto, it's still freezing!

First time seeing Kyoto tower from the Kyoto station, take selfies.

After we checked in and dropped our baggage at hotel, we directly go out. Our hotel is only around 10 min walk from the station. Very strategic and got several convenience store around too. What’s fun about my hotel is, they even have this recommended itinerary around Kyoto!

 And we mostly follow this itinerary even though we skipped some unimportant part of it.

The boys planning the journey.

Because it’s our first day, we decided just to explore nearby first. So we tried to go to two temples, Higashi and Nishi Honganji temples. These two temples resemble each other, I say.

After that we went to Nijo-jo, the famous castle that were completed during the reign of Tokugawa Iemitsu. It’s so massive and glorious wtf I'm so speechless. Photo can’t capture it’s glory. Go see yourself for maximum awesomeness hahaha.

I remember we need to take train from Kyoto Station to Nijo-jo Mae Station and have to walk a little bit to reach the front gate.

Satisfied with Nijo-Jo, time flied and it’s around four already So we went straight to Gion area by taking train back to Kyoto station and take the bus to the front of Yasaka Shrine.

From Yasaka Shrine, we walked around Gion and ate yummy traditional desserts! We just visit random interesting dessert shop because we were quite hungry at that time, but not a dinner time yet.. so, snack it is. And we didn't regret it. It cost us around 3.500 yen only for these three glorious dessert!

And not to forget we hunt for Geisha too!! And i can say we kind of fortunate because we saw (to be exact, peeking from window) 2 geishas at one of the restaurant across the river doing their job, customer service and entertaining.. It’s on the second floor on one of these several buildings below. So exciting! !

Andddd that is the end of our day 1. Quite exciting since It’s still the beginning. Feel quite tired, we went back to hotel and getting ready for the second day.

For the second day, because we traveled mostly by bus for the whole day, we brought 500 yen all day bus pass. Oh, and we always start our day around 07.00, breakfast and etc so we can just go to the destination around 09.00. Because in Kyoto, most of the temples usually closed around 16.00 or 17.00, so If your itinerary mostly are temples, you ought to finish it before 16.00, at minimum.

First destination, Sanjusangendo Temple. Massive. Undescribable. Open and clear sky above long structured building. Holy Moly. Something I definitely cannot see in Tokyo.

We went inside the temple too. Satisfied with taking photos, went straight to Kiyomizu Dera by bus from bus station nearby. Kiyomizu Dera was exciting too! Got so many shops that sells food and stuffs on the way to the temple itself.

I remember we got so many distractions at that time. We stopped at several shops, ate several snacks such as matcha ice cream, meat bun, cream puff on our way to and back from Kiyomizu Dera. The temple itself was very breathtaking!

And there’s this “love rock” that said that if somebody can walk from one stone to the other (got two stones) with closed eyes without stumbled with other person, they can find their true love.

Hahahahhaa quite bullsh*t I think, since the space between those two rocks is so far and the spot is so crowded!! Even with both eyes open I crash several person wtf. But however it’s fun. So many love charm being sold too!

From Kiyomizu Dera, we ate our lunch around that area. After lunch we decided to walk to Nene no Michi (Nene’s Road) that’s very famous for its scenery. Got a lot of cute traditional shops too there.

But I don’t know why we three found it very boring and decided to just went off to the next destination, Ginkakuji, by bus again.

The main pathway, so ninja. That's our first reaction seeing this tall plant wall here. So synchronized hahaha

And from there they got several stone art garden as an opening "show", keep following the road and we will find Ginkakuji near the end of the road.

The scenery itself was so calming. If minus all the crowd, it would be more perfect..

From Ginkakuji, we went out and walked directly to another recommended spot, philosopher’s path. They say this road a philosopher's path because there's once a (famous?) Japanese philosopher that used to walk here everyday. And the rest of the story, i don't know ver well I'm sorry. However, again, after we walked a little bit, found it quite boring. 

And suddenly I knew what's wrong. We went there not at the very right time I guess. It’s around end winter so no leaves, no flowers (where it supposed to be full of cherry blossoms everywhere in Kyoto around April) and quite booboo. So without all the flowers, it's not quite attractive, and rather cold. But on the other hand, it wasn't a peak season thus not crowded and we can enjoy the peacefulness more.

From there we kinda run to Nanzenji Temple nearby only to find that It has been closed already L At least I can took several photos even though only the main gate.

Why the hell all the temples in Kyoto is so massive???? Unbelievable.

Finish with all the temples, we went back again to around Gion area and explore more of the shopping areas and geisha hunting. We ate yakiniku buffet too there! What's  awesome about Gion is here's this side of "vintage Japan" and "modern Japan" that contrast each other!

We glad we took a little bit more time to explore Gion. And the best part is!! Finally we found a real geisha walking in front of our eyes!! She walked so fast and so shy I cannot even took photos of her. We found her when we walked a small path in the middle of nowhere, so it was kinda unexpected. Can't even prepare for camera. Several random tourist just stare in awe of her, cannot do anything, so shocked and stunned from awesomeness. So funny!!

However, conclusion for day 2, awesooooome. So much better than first day. Great travel good food. There’s nothing can beat that. 

Alrighty! Posting next day itinerary soon!

(continue to part 2)

And if you want to read the other 2 post related to this Kyoto trip, here are the part 2 and part 3.