Working Hours
So I went to the bakery on the corner of my block this morning to get some chocolate croissants on my way to the train station. It was 7:45. There were two women behind the various counters when I got outside the bakery. I pushed on the door and it didn’t budge. Puzzled, I knocked on the glass. One of the women looked at me and held up eight fingers, “Eight. We open at eight.”
They open at eight. THEY’RE A DAMN BAKERY!!! They get to work at like 2:00am! Why the hell do they wait until 8:00am to open! Who the hell is going to get their morning croissant and coffee or whathaveyou at freaking 8am? By that time all the good Dutch people are on a train or in a car or on a bike on their way to work (so they can all leave at 4:30 or 5:00 on the dot).
Weird.
Did you find your passport afterwards? Did you...
They actually open at five, but I called them and instructed them not to issue you any chocolate croissants.
You must be living in the the European version of Japan. It is the same shit in Japan. A lot of bakeries here in Japan don’t even open till 10. I can’t wait for Chizuko’s comment on this one.
Ok let me lament a similar, woeful state in Japan.
The bakery that’s in the basement floor of the downtown Tokyo office tower where my work is won’t open till 11.
Most kiosks at Japanese train stations are closed until 6:15 or so (you couldn’t even buy the morning’s newspaper!!) though trains operate from like 5.
Typical coffee shops (including foreign chains like Starbucks) don’t open till 7 or later.
Brian, you’re not the only one who’s too used to the common sense and convenience America has offered.