A slap from Mitsuwa

I was shopping in the Mitsuwa Market in Little Tokyo on Friday, and was in the middle of filling a cart with the odd cold drinks that are uniquely available there (grapefruit drink, peach drink that seems to have peach fuzz added... Etc.), and I noticed a young Japanese woman staring at me with a look of abject horror on her face. She fled rapidly when I noticed her, and returned with the store security guard, pointing me out as the object of her concern, and he immediately proceeded, grinning, to force me from my position in front of the various flavors of Ramune so as to allow the young woman to make her selection free from the gaijin menace. The guard did this without uttering a word, and evidently enjoyed himself immensely. I went immediately to the store manager, Mr. Kobayashi (a man I have hailed by name many times, since I shop at the store every week, spending a LOT of money each visit), and complained that I had been harrassed by the guard. Mr. Kobayashi smiled broadly and told me "He is doing his job!". I asked what that meant: "What job is that, harrassing your regular customers?!". He laughed and said "Yes, yes!". I said I felt I deserved an apology from the guard, and he explained to me that he could not ask the guard to apologise for doing his job.

I have done my best to contact the corporate overlords of Mitsuwa Market, and hope to receive a reply from them soon. In the meantime I am really, seriously annoyed. I am going to do all my shopping at Marukai from now on.

I have been shopping at that market for a very long time... Since long before it was Mitsuwa (It was Yaohan until about 10 years ago), and have only ever had very friendly interactions with the staff until Friday, when they closed ranks against the evil gaijin who was presenting an imminent threat to the well-being of the community by buying all the soft drinks.

Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 11:05 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

"He was doing his job"!!!?!? And Mr Kobayashi was laughing and he said "Yes, yes"?!?! Suprise

This is a scary story! Crying

I do feel for you, pokute!! You must have felt so betrayed Sad

I hope the people higher up the ladder will actually do something about it... Neutral

Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 2:48 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I feel like I was arrested, jailed, and then told "Oh well, so what if you're not guilty... What if you really did do it?". Obviously, I was living in some cloud-cuckoo-land to believe that I could shop at a Japanese market indefinitely without overstaying my welcome. When I think about the number of times I have taken members of my own ethnic group down a peg for "closing ranks", I feel like a fool. Maybe I need to go kill some Palestinian children to regain my own ethnic identity? Let's all revert to type and kill each other ASAP before some other fool makes a similar mistake.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 3:03 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

wow, that's kinda odd ..

btw, i was just there last week, (monday).

Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 3:10 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

This might seem totally out of line and you may consider it way too heavy, but have you considered suing the store? I assume that you mean Little Tokyo in LA; this kind of behaviour sounds highly illegal in the United States and it sounds like you could sue that guard for illegal detention and discrimination. If you don't want to go that far, maybe send that story to a newspaper? This behaviour was definitely unacceptable and I wish you all the best in getting that apology.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 3:18 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

not sure how, but if there's anyway to do so, get everything documented on paper. write letters to the store manager, request apologies, make copies of anything that comes back, then when there's sufficient evidence, then commence the suing. That's not right what they did, and makes me a little wary of going over to the Mitsuwa over here.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 4:37 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

She wanted to get a drink from the cold drink section. I was buying a whole shopping cart full of drinks from that section, and she could not bring herself to either: A. Step up to the cold drink section while I was there - B. Wait until I was through. I can only imagine what she said to the guard (and the store manager?) to get them to strongarm me. But at the same time, regardless of what she said, I had nearly $100 worth of soft drinks loaded into my basket at the time... Just what did they make of THAT? And I purchased the cart full of drinks during the time that I was searching for Kobayashi-san to report the bad behavior of the guard.

I am considering whether legal action is appropriate. I wonder how far the staff of Mitsuwa is willing to go to defend the action of the guard and manager, without having any idea whether there was ANY reason for their action? The entire Little Tokyo Plaza depends upon the market to bring in business... My favorite sushi bar is in there... I would much rather pursue this as a personal vendetta against that ass of a manager, rather than risk fighting with all of Little Tokyo.

@2triky - Yeah, I have shopped there FOREVER (since the Yaohan Plaza was built!). I have lunch at the lunch counter there with my daughter at least twice every month. I have talked to the manager about products (asking for melon Ramune, etc.) any number of times... I spend an ungodly amount of money there... But, I'm obviously NOT JAPANESE.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 7:23 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 8:54 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

double post.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 11:07 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Some people are just plain rude no matter the nationality. If you opt for suing, first thing that comes into my mind is it going to be expensive? If its free by all means sue their ass.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 11:20 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Sorry, where is Little Tokyo?

Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 12:30 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 1:02 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Wow...hmm, I thought this was in Japan, so I wasn't surprised at first. But in the US? That's shocking.
Hope it doesn't keep you from buying the stuff you like =/

Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 1:16 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

That is crazy. There got to be other non-Japanese people there at that time, how can they just pick out u and do that. That is so racial discrimination. This world is full of crazy ppl.