Luka Iwaki Discussion 3

When Oedipus insulted Teiresias’ appearance after being told and overwhelmed by Oedipus’ inescapable fate, he changed his attitude from a wise and humble king to a ignorant one. The brave king who was loved from the people was no more when his attitude changed in a matter of seconds. Refusing to believe is anyone’s free will to do so but insulting about physical appearance will have consequences. When I was working at a Vinyl store in Tokyo, I had a customer who came up to me to checkout half a dozen of vinyls. After scanning it all and showing him the total, he claimed that there is a 20% discount. I asked him to show me the coupon so I could scan it, but he apparently left it at home. Partially suspicious, I told him that I am not aware of any coupons at the current moment. Right after I said that, his meltdown started. He said on repeat”customers are gods right? you’re supposed to do everything you can do to satisfy me”. The old Japanese mindset of “customers are gods” somehow revived and me being the only one in the floor, was out of options but to call the manager for help. And then he started talking about my appearance claiming that I wasn’t Japanese enough to understand what he was saying. Having been insulted, I wanted to say back to him to suck it up and pay the full price and plus, he was not poor for sure, since vinyl collecting is a expensive hobby and he was wearing a Louis Vuitton shirt. I stayed quiet until the manager came out and when she did, she kicked the customer out and banned him from the store chain entirely, which is a very rare scene in Japan.