This Is Japan
Explore everyday life in Japan
Which do you prefer, full-service gas stations or self-service gas stations?
If you find yourself driving in Japan and needing gas, chances are you will find yourself being helped by a gas station attendant. And what exactly does that mean? Well, it means that a man or a woman will come to the driver side of your car, open your door and ask you what kind of gas you would like, and how much you need. After that, he/she will most likely offer you a dampened towel to wipe the interior of your car with, throw away any trash you may have in your car, and then clean your windows and mirrors while waiting for the gas to finish pumping.
Sound nice?
It is.
Gas stations and convenience stores in Japan haven’t been combined yet. So going to a gas station, in most cases, means you are really going to a service station—a small garage with mechanics on hand who will pump your gas, answer your questions, and look into any problems that you might have with your car.
Many gas stations in Japan also have one or more self-service pumps and, in my experience at least, occasionally you will find self-service only gas stations. The self-service pumps in Japan are interesting because they handle cash transactions all by themselves.
For first-time users paying in cash who can’t read Japanese, self-service pumps can be a little tricky.
After choosing your payment method from a digital touch screen, you either enter the amount of money you want to spend or, if you would like to fill your tank all the way up, you choose the full-tank option. If you choose the full-tank option, you will then have to put more money into the gas pump than you think it will cost to fill your tank.
After having finished pumping your gas, in order to collect your change, you will need to collect your receipt, which will have a bar code printed on its reverse side, and scan it in a separate change-dispensing machine. Though it sounds like a bit of a process in writing, paying in cash for a full tank of gas at a self-service pump here is actually quite easy. You just need to do it once to get the hang of it.
For those of you who may be planning on driving in Japan in the near or distant future, please remember this phrase, leg-you-la oh m-ah-n t-ah-n kudasai, it means give me a full tank of gas, please. Just copy and paste the following Japanese into Google Translate if you want to hear the real pronunciation of this phrase (レギュラーを満タンください.).
This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting regular updates about life in Japan, please consider following me at @boxcarblue. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.
Thank you for posting @boxcarblue. Very interesting. Appreciate you bringing Japanese lifestyle to Steemit.
I'm glad to hear it. Thanks for reading and commenting. It's very much appreciated.