One phrase is all you need in Japan but there's a catch

Japan is the world's most polite place.迷你倉沙田 About 90 percent of utterances consist of the phrase ``thank you.'' Many residents live their whole lives without saying anything else. The tricky thing is that ``thank you'' in Japanese is 12 syllables long: ``Doumo arigato gozaimashita.'' I tried repeatedly to say it on my recent visit there, but succeeded in getting to the end only once - by which time, the train doors had closed and the person I was thanking was several kilometers away. That's because Japanese trains move at the speed of light. You've barely sat down when the train announcer says: ``We will be arriving in Tokyo in one minute. Stay on the train for a further minute if you wish to get off at the next stop, Australia.'' Any train driver who puts his brakes down a fraction of a second late ends up stopping in Antarctica. It's vital to learn the words for thank you, because Japanese people express gratitude for everything and expect you to do the same. Whenever you encounter someone, whether you are buying something or standing on someone's foot, the person will bow and express deep gratitude. Japanese bank robberies proceed as follows. Bank robbers: ``Thank you for the loot we are stealing.'' Tellers: ``No problem. Thank you for choosing us for your stealing needs. Please come again.'' The bad thing is that robbing banks is pretty much a must. Ev迷你倉價錢rything in Japan is so expensive that foreigners cannot get by for long without considering crime sprees. Even during periods when the yen exchange rate falls, the whole money thing remains a big problem. Japan has one thing in common with primitive human societies such as those in the jungles of Papua and bars of Queensland. You can't use credit cards. Only cash is accepted. Since I spend a lot of time in Hong Kong, where money is not accepted in many places, it was a shock to be in a place where the hotel manager wanted cash equivalent to the Greek national debt before agreeing to release my lunch (a live octopus) to me. I asked him to point me to an ATM. ``There's only one in this town,'' he said. ``And it closes at 2pm so you'd better hurry.'' I would have said thank you, but by then the ATM would definitely have closed. The only disaster on my most recent visit was the day I took my two daughters skiing, forgetting that none of us can ski. We proceeded acrobatically down a mountain on heads and bottoms until we ended up at a cliff edge. A blizzard hit the mountain and all the chairlifts stopped. There was no way up, and going down or staying still was certain death. What to do? Luckily a man with a skimobile appeared and whisked us to safety. I tried to say thank you but he was home before I was halfway through. Send ideas and comments via .mrjam.org 迷你倉庫