Speaking of Service

I recently commented on a post Snabulus put on Isis' blog. I remarked that, when dealing with any kind of specialty shop, one is bound to find lots of service that is anything but...particularly "experts" that are more likely to humiliate you than help you if you ask for anything beyond the status quo. Arkonbey apparently misunderstood my point and took issue with it, thinking I was claiming there is no good service anywhere. I wasn't. Service is something that comes in many different forms, and its quality (or lack thereof) can depend a lot on your point of view.

Speaking of which...

With a convenience-oriented culture and an advanced level of domestic technology, it is only natural that Japan has some wonderful home electronics shops. Chain stores such as Ishimaru, Yamada, Laox, and K's are large and filled with an impressive array of hardware ranging from simple flashlights to impressively sophisticated home media entertainment centers. Modern Japan seems to have an almost symbiotic relationship with her technology, so it is no surprise that the big electronics shops tend to be busy most of the time. After all, it seems like one can find almost anything there...

...except service. As usual I have come close to pacing a hole in the floor by the time I finally spot a free clerk and manage to flag him down before he either disappears into a crevasse or gets lassoed by someone else. The man, wearing the black-and-white uniform of a lower-level manager, comes over, a smile of recognition on his face. (I am, after all, a very noticeable regular customer here.)

Pointing toward a row of boxes on a high shelf, I tell him my predicament. I want to get a high-speed USB 2.0 card for my newest laptop, the one that is to form the basis of my home studio. The problem is that, as a new machine, it runs Vista (loud bass thrum with tympani). All of the high-speed USB 2.0 cards on the shelf, at least as far as I've seen, only say that they're compatible with up to XP sp 1. I ask if that will be a problem. The clerk sucks air through his teeth a few times before pulling out his handy communicator and paging someone who will be more capable of answering my question.

After a pause of a few minutes I am approached by clerk #2, who is wearing the colors of a regular employee. I repeat my inquiry, and he tells me that there will likely be a compatibility problem, but I should be able to download the proper driver off the internet. In fact, he even takes me over to one of the display machines and proceeds to do a search for a few of the products they carry...and comes up empty. The manufacturers' sites list the products, but there is no mention of Vista driver upgrades whatsoever. There is only a repeat of what's on the boxes, i.e. compatible with up to XP sp 1. Not willing to let it go at that, the clerk starts frantically Yahooing around to see if he can find anything.

That's when I make a Decision. I admit that my experience with Vista is still very limited. My new studio laptop is my first and only contact with it, and thus far I've used that machine only a little bit. Still, since all the new music software I've bought is obviously designed for XP with Vista compatibility added as an afterthought (evidenced by the fact that the instruction manuals all mention Vista but show XP), I've had to wonder whether it's just more trouble than it's worth. This bit with the USB card swings the jury as far as I'm concerned.

"It's okay," I tell clerk #2. "Don't bother. Do you have a copy of XP available?"

The clerk looks strangely relieved...even enthusiastic. "We sure do," he says, and he goes and fetches one. As we walk to the register, he assures me repeatedly that it's a simple matter to remove Vista and replace it with XP. "All your hardware should be compatible," he says. "It should be no problem. But if there is an issue, we can help you."

Someone else apparently doesn't agree, for another clerk sitting at a nearby table immediately perks up. He is wearing the white shirt, black tie, thick glasses, and smugly arrogant albeit geekish look of the Resident Tech Expert. (No pocket protector, though.) He's also wearing a face like a Taliban who'd just wandered into a Miss America pageant.

"Wh...at...?" he hisses. "Replace Vista...with XP?" Ultimate blasphemy.

Clerk #2 glances sidelong at the R.T.E. with a whipped puppy look and quietly explains that, due to compatibility problems, I want to switch operating systems. He starts to say that it's an easy process, one that he has already seen if not personally tried, but his ego gets verbally body-slammed mid sentence.

"No!" retorts the R.T.E., still in a hissing whisper. "No! He can't do that! That's a mistake! Tell him that'll only create more problems!"

"What sort of problems?" I ask him with a tone and look that say, "Talk to me, dammit!"

The R.T.E. glares at me warily for a second and then promptly looks down his nose. "Switching to XP may solve the problem with some software and peripherals," he says, huffing with annoyance, "but if you're using a machine designed for Vista, then you could lose all your onboard equipment! Your graphics, your sound card, your disk drives...even if they still work, they won't work very well!"

That doesn't mesh with what I've heard elsewhere, and even clerk #2 seems surprised at the R.T.E.'s spiel. I really want to reply by saying, "Oh, really?" in an equally annoyed tone, but I think better of it. Instead I go back and look through the stack of high-speed USB 2.0 cards again. It turns out that one of them has a sticker on it that says "Vista compatible", so I buy it and give up on the XP switch...at least for now. I also apologize to clerk #2. At least he really tried to be helpful.

***

We have a new beat cop in our neighborhood, and he is a totally different sort from the last one.

In Japan every neighborhood is assigned a beat cop. In rural areas like Namegata he usually lives in the area he patrols. It's his job to get to know all the people there, keep an eye on things, and be available to give assistance when and if it's needed. His base of operation is quite often a police box, known as a koban, that is directly connected to his house. He and his family live as members of the neighborhood even as he takes responsibility for it.

Actually, the last beat cop was notoriously conspicuous by his absence. I rarely saw him at all even though the koban is only a hundred meters or so from my house, and I think I saw him outside his police cruiser only once. That was when he came to our house for the traditional first greeting on assuming his post. My father-in-law naturally invited him in for tea, and he complied. (That's the norm here. There doesn't seem to be any rules against beat cops socializing with their neighbors.) He was a youngish man with curly hair and didn't really have much to say. If he was ever on duty in his koban, he was with all the lights turned off.

I might add that his wife was a frosty [censored] who quickly earned the dislike of the neighborhood with her conceited, stand-offish attitude and ill-mannered way of talking. It seemed clear that neither of them was happy at being posted out in the boonies with a bunch of hicks. The several years they spent with us (in theory) were probably pure torture for them, and they were probably happy to go.

Enter the new policeman. He's an older guy and much, much more like the traditional image of what a beat cop should be like. While making it tacitly clear that he's not one to be messed with, he has been going out of his way to get to know everyone. During his first week with us he actually flagged me down with his traffic baton as I was heading out to Ye Olde Academy, which shocked the heck out of me. I was worried that I was going to get told I had inadvertently broken some obscure law...or just harassed on account of my race. Instead, he greeted me with a hearty laugh, told me he just wanted to say good morning, and asked me if my school was keeping me busy even though it was spring vacation. Yes, he does seem to ask a lot of questions, but he hasn't gone out of line, and I guess it really is his job to know what's going on, not that I have anything to hide anyway.

I've also been seeing him out there a lot, especially in the morning when the kids are going to the nearby elementary school. When I drive by he always greets me with a smile and a salute. I guess if his job is to protect and serve, he seems to be taking it very seriously, and I can appreciate that.

***

Speaking of serving the public, Prime Minister Fukuda has just managed to override the upper house and reinstate the increased gasoline tax rate. He added a condition that the revenues be used for spending on things other than road construction, but that was small comfort. At midnight last night the price of gas went up about 30 yen a liter (about a dollar a gallon). You should have seen the long lines at all of the gas stations yesterday. It was insane. I bet the station owners were happy, though. I know the local governments are. The general public, however...