Aaaaaaaaaaargh!

I've been a good boy all day, busy updating my address book onto my pc (in case I should lose my phone), and wasn't planning to blog today.

But I just got accosted by an insurance salesman who kept shoving pamphlet after pamphlet in my face, regardless of my pleas of "Wakarimasen, Wakarimasen!" I don't friggin' understand, lady, can't you get the hint? Once she FINALLY left, she left me a package of tissues with the "Gibraltar" logo on it, so I figured out she was selling insurance. Up until that moment, I had NO idea what she wanted.

This is one of the several inconveniences that one must smile and tolerate when living in this country. When a salesman comes to my door at home, I usually just play the dumb gaijin card and feign ignorance. It often works, unless they have an English pamphlet and want to practice their bilingualism. The most persistent are the NTT guys who insist on my paying the cable bill. Now, I have a satellite dish and rarely watch regular tv, and to tell the truth, I AM obligated to pay the fee. BUT most of the country doesn't, so why should I? The other pesterers are the Jehovah Witness . OH YES, we get them here too! They usually attack in pairs and one is cute, the other less so. I'd like to invite them in sometime, just to freak them out, but I'm too nice a guy.

But at work, you would assume you'd be immune to salesmen and other pitchmen, but on a daily basis, I get some pamphlet for Travel/ food/ lodging or some other indecipherable purpose. I try to be as polite as possible, yet when I throw the dumb gaijin card in their face, it just bounces off and they persist and persist, pushing patience to a new level. The most frustrating part is that they still insist on leaving the pamphlet, regardless of my request that they NOT do so! (Another tree bites the dust!)