McDonald's robots

I was once refused mustard at McDonalds.

It doesn't really sound like anyhting at all until you start to think about how McDonalds usually operates. Then it sounds impossible. Everyone now is sarcastically asking the question: "Did a McDonalds employee, when you asked for some mustard, really just say no?" And you all think my answer will be, "Well, not in those exact words." But this isn't true. I asked for some mustard and the guy literally said no.

But what got me was the reasoning behind it. I ordered a value meal and politely asked for some mustard and was politely refused. When I asked why, I was told that I had not ordered any chicken nuggets, and mustard only comes with chicken nuggets. I said I would pay extra for the mustard. This was followed by a solid minute of gazing at the register. After which I was told that I couldn't pay extra for mustard because there was no mustard button on the register.

There was no mustard button on the register.

There was no mustard button on the register.

I'll had to let this one sink in.

There was no mustard button on the register.

Now, every Australian reading this blog is shaking their head with a wry smile of amusement. Every Japanese who is reading this is shaking their head, puzzled as to where the joke lies in this  story and wondering why anyone would go into McDonalds and ask for mustard with anything but chicken nuggets. Because mustard simply doesn't come with anything but chicken nuggets.

That is a story of how the Japanese refusal to break the rules frustrated me while I was there. This next one is a story of how the Japanese refusal to break the rules fills my heart with joy.

I went snowboarding a lot in Japan. It is just fantastic. The snow is awesome and it is ridiculously cheap. For $30 I can get a return bus ticket from Nagoya to the slopes which includes the lift passes. And there is a lot of snow and all the runs are perfectly groomed. And the groomed area is what you are supposed to ski or board on, because the parts of the mountain that aren't groomed are dangerous. Like if you go on them little monsters are going to jump out of invisibles holes and pounce on you as you fly down the  mountain. So there is about 5 metres from where the groomed track finishes to where the trees start. And NOBODY goes there. This means that at any given time, if you dare to venture even half a metre off the groomed track you could have a run of kilometres of untracked powder snow. You could then catch the lift up the top and figure 8 your own tracks because noone else will go there. Because if you lose control you could hit a tree and just imagine the consequences. Plus, there are signs telling you to stay  on the groomed runs and you cannot go against what the signs say. I'd like to see how the majority of Japanese would go if they went toCanada  and saw everyone searching for powder runs right  through the trees. Admittedly they don't have pine trees in Japan and there is no way you could make it rhoguh their forests intact. But it was just fantastic. Kilometres of untracked powder snow because the sign tells them they can't go there.