Saying no

Before going to Japan, I had heard that the Japanese don't say 'no.'

I assumed this was wrong. Of course they say no. What if you ask a Japanese person, "does two plus two equal five?"

How could they not say no?

The answer is, they have a way of saying no, but they don't necessarily use the word no.

Location: Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan

My flight into Tokyo landed late at night. The airport was almost empty. I took the airport train into Tokyo. The train was almost empty. I took the subway to Asakusa. The subway was almost empty. I walked to the hostel, following directions that I had printed out in advance. The streets were almost empty. 

The whole experience was surreal. I had been in the world's biggest city for a couple hours and had only seen a handful of people. Maybe because it was late. And November. And cold.

I arrived at the hostel and saw signs of life. There were three Japanese people manning the front desk, and a group of backpackers playing video games in the common area.

The young man at the front desk asked to see my passport. I had hidden my passport between a bunch of stuff in my backpack, in an effort to stymie potential thieves.

"I can show you my passport, but it's hard for me to get to. Can I show you my driver's license instead?"

"Of course! But it would be better if I could see your passport," the young man replied.

"Oh. Well, uhh, if a driver's license is okay, here it is."

I handed him the driver's license. He carefully read all the information on it. He nodded and hummed pensively as he was reading. He motioned for his coworkers to come over and look at the driver's license with him. He pointed out some features of the driver's license that he had found interesting, and they hummed pensively. There was a quick discussion in Japanese and one of the coworkers took the driver's license, hurried to the back office with it, carefully made photocopies of both sides, and hurried back with it.

Once this production was over... "Thank you very much! Now, can I see your passport?"

Location: Kyoto, Japan

I wanted to take a train from Kyoto to a smaller neighboring city. I walked to the train station and asked the woman at the ticket desk for a ticket.

"Of course. But you might prefer to take the bus."

"Okay, but I'm already here. I'd rather just take the train," I said.

"Of course. But the bus would be much more comfortable."

"You're probably right, but I think I'll take the train," I said.

"Yes, yes. Of course. Of course. But, at this time, taking the bus would be much faster."

"I'm sure the bus is much more comfortable and much faster, but can you please just give me a train ticket?" I said.

"Sir, there is no train to that city. You will have to take the bus."