🚀 go-pugleaf

ishikawa@ds5200.personal-media.co.jp (Chiaki Ishikawa) writes:

>>>>>> On 29 Jul 92 00:35:15 GMT, claude@trc.mew.mei.co.jp (Claude Huss) said:

>Claude> AT LAST, I found a place, but my landlady "forced" me to sign
>Claude> a contract with clauses like "You must pledge to don't speak in loud
>Claude> voice", "You must pledge to don't invite friends from your
>Claude> country", "You must pledge to don't invite friends from yourcountry",
>Claude> "You must pledge to don't laugh", etc. etc. 
>	Gad. This is RIDICUROUS! Couldn't you do something to avoid
>this??? 

How did she "force" you, put a gun at your head? Call in her yakuza
brother? What exactly?

[* other stuff omitted *]

>My guess for the best remedy is that there is a japanese legal
>counselor's office to weed out this kind of blutant racism. You may
>want to contact them via your Japanese colleagues or your Japanese
>friend. 

Sorry, but I fail to see the connection between the problem and the
suggested remedy. He wants to get a place to live. He has trouble
with a landlady. He takes up the question of blatant racism? Sounds
like overkill to me...

If you walk into a restaurant and they don't have what you want,
do you file a charge with some legal counselor's office? No, you
find another restaurant.

But of course he says that he "AT LAST" found a place. What does
this mean? I mean how did he go about finding a place? For example,
did he talk to somebody who didn't have any problems and ask them
how they went about it? 

IMHO, the infamous "I was the object of blatant racism" complaint is
because there are a certain number of people who come to Japan and
believe "the wheel that squeaks is the one that gets oiled". Thus
they go around saying how badly they are treated in hope that
somebody will help them. But, unfortunately, this isn't how things
work here and the more you complain, the more problems you cause
yourself. And even more unfortunately the people who don't have any
problems tend to be quiet so you have to search them out...

Only my experience ;-)

Dave

--
Dave McLane                                       davidg@aegis.or.jp
Sorry, I can only understand replies in English (or a little French).
You're free to copy/quote/translate this as long as credit is given. 
Nagaokakyoshi, Kyoto Japan Tel: +81-75-951-1168 Fax: +81-75-957-1087