I was a little hungry while in Shinjuku station, so I stopped at Junoesque Bagel. Here’s what happened.
Cashier: *rings up price*
Me: *touches smartcard to device to pay*
Device: BEEP BEEP (you don’t have enough, the charge is 14,279 yen, you only have 5,047 yen)
Me: *looks at cashier*
Cashier: *punches more buttons, indicates I should touch it again*
Me: *touches it again*
Device: BEEP (you have been charged 5,047 yen and now have 0 yen)
Me: I don’t think that’s right. Now I have nothing on my card.
Cashier: *prints receipt, speaks Japanese*
Me: No, see, you charged me FOURTEEN THOUSAND YEN. [this is about $150. for a bagel and bottle of juice.]
Cashier: *speaks Japanese*
Me: No, it’s a mistake. You charged me too much, now I have nothing.
Cashier: *speaks Japanese*
Me: FOURTEEN THOUSAND. *points to numbers* Ichi… [means 1] Then you did something else, now I have nothing.
Cashier: *speaks Japanese*
Me: No, see, when I came up here – *step away, come back with card raised* I had five thousand yen. Now I have zero. *points to receipt*
back and forth a little more
Me: You took all the money off. *wonders if anybody around speaks English*
Cashier: *speaks Japanese*
Me: It was a mistake.
Cashier: *opens register, gets out 5,047 yen in cash, hands it to me*
Me: That’s fine. That works just fine. That will do. *pays in cash, takes bagel and juice, leaves*
OH MY GOD. How do you NOT NOTICE that you charged me $162 for a BAGEL? Have you ever in your life rung up anything at the BAGEL STORE for that much? How do you fail to understand me pointing at the receipt and holding up 1 finger, then 4 fingers? WOW.