Yellow Hat

One of the nice things about Japan is it's capacity for providing small but pleasant surprises.

Like this evening for example. This week we've had problems with one of our car headlights. One of the bulbs wasn't working - it still lights OK but it is not as bright as it should be.

So being conscientious citizens and not wanting a tap on the shoulder from the local cops we went over to the 'Yellow Hat'store at Togane. I guess there are originally an American outfit. It's the equivalent here of Halfords in the UK. The bulb was 1300 yen and they would fit it in twenty minutes for 400 yen - about £8 altogether.

Well, twenty minutes came and went, then thirty. We were worried because we had to be back here by 6:20 for a class. Two mechanics were hunched over the car. They came to find us and it seems the problem wasn't the bulb but a fault in the wiring - it needs a trip to the garage.

How much did they charge us for their time? Nothing. Well, so sorry but they hadn't been able to help. And no need to pay for the bulb either, they could use it next time.

I was impressed. You would have had that kind of response in Britain thirty years ago for sure and you might still find it in a small country garage with a kind mechanic. Cynical I might be but I suspect that in a bigger chain operation now it would have been tweny minutes labour and you would have paid for the bulb as they couldn't 'put it back into stock' - lets' say fifteen quid mate!

It's not all about 'margin' eh?