American Man Called Out Another About Hanging Out In A Japanese Cafe Without Buying Anything, And Everyone Ended Up Offended » TwistedSifter

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In Japan, it’s customary to only stay in an establishment if you’re consuming enough to justify being there in order not to take up space unnecessarily.

So an American living there decided to call out another American who didn’t seem to be aware of that (or didn’t care).

But unfortunately, he and his friends took offense. Now he’s wondering if he shouldn’t have said anything in the first place.

Read the story below to see how things played out.

I’m an American living in Japan and spoke up to another American (who I think is in the military stationed here).

The guy was sitting near me in a cafe sipping on his can of sprite, when a staff member, a Japanese customer, AND the manager all spoke to him one after the other (in broken English) that it’s the rule he has to buy something if he’s sitting inside.

They were trying to communicate with him, but he wasn’t making it easy.

He just kept saying “no, thank you” to them, pretending to be polite.

I felt like he was abusing the fact that they couldn’t speak much English, so I spoke up and said something like “hey bro, if you’re not gonna order just leave, you don’t have to be a jerk about it.”

Maybe it wasn’t the best approach, but it should have been enough for him to understand he was embarrassing himself.

He got all offended and shrugged me off.

He was there for an hour with his buddies (4 guys total, only 2 bought drinks).

He never ordered a thing, and before leaving his buddy came up to me, and although his body language and tone of voice were calm, asked me three times in a row “are you having a good day?”

This wasn’t my issue to get involved with, I’m aware, I just hate to see staff have to deal with rude foreign customers.

AITA?

Respecting the customs of a country makes the experience better for everybody.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say about this.

A reader shares their thoughts.

This commenter shares their opinion.

Bad rep.

Someone compliments him.

Another reader chimes in.

Exactly.

He did his part in calling him out.

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