Firsts
I decided to write about “The Geography of Genius” continuously for some days, but I’m already going to take a break from that because today I experienced or saw things for the first time that I would like to share, in case someone finds it then interesting too.
In the morning I met Inari-san to look at apartments because of a problem I have with my apartment now. We went to a rental agent and that was already a new experience for me. In the Philippines, we just go to the apartment or meet the owner of the apartment. We don’t need to talk to a rental agent, which is good because we don’t need to pay rental agent fees. I think it’s also good for landlords because they can meet the people who will rent their space and decide whether they will rent their space or not based on their impression.
People in the Philippines also don’t have to sit in a rental agent’s office and listen to him call a landlord and ask if it’s okay for a foreigner – a Filipino – to rent the apartment, and then listen to the landlord refuse because of that reason. I’ve been judged because of my race and it was a terrible and shocking experience, and I think being refused because of my not being a Japanese was kind of the same even though it’s probable because of the language barrier.
The rental agent we talked to, however, was really good. He asked for a discount twice and he got it, and that was another new experience. I have heard and seen foreigners in Japan asking for discounts, but I haven’t seen Japanese do it. I’ve been told that people here don’t ask for discounts, but today I saw and Japanese man do it and he was successful. I don’t know if it was just for show, but it made me think that maybe I should do it too in the future.
This has been a day of first times. Although not everything I’ve experienced were good, I don’t regret experiencing them because I learned something anyway.