Taito Station Phoedra Osu — Local services in Nagoya

Context: We’re on vacation here from the US and are Asian American.

There’s a great train simulator here that my 7 year old loves. But there’s a male staffer with glasses and long hair who is extremely rude to aging Asian grandmas who are actively spending money at the arcade.

Judging by other reviews here, he has a history of being rude to customers, and I hope higher management takes note. This staffer is clearly burned out and needs to be given rest or a leave of absence. The game center probably does well financially because of its location, but this guy is a terrible representative for your business.

My son was playing the train game for 20 minutes at ¥200 per game. One of his Grandmas, who has trouble walking, was paying for him to play the train game. She was sitting to rest in the seat of a nearby game while my son played. Nobody ever came by to play the game she was sitting at because it was a slow time of day.

I arrived after he’d been playing a while. I came on the scene and witnessed him say something to Grandma then dart away. I asked what happened and found out he said she can’t rest there. I couldn’t believe it. She’s the one paying for the game. The kid has no money without grandma. What’s the issue?

When he came in hot for another yell, I intervened. I speak a little Japanese and explained she’s paying for the kid to play.

The fact that grandma was paying for the kid didn’t matter. In Japanese he said ”in Japan it doesn’t matter. She cannot sit there unless she’s paying to play that game.”

I pulled my son out and the grandmas and my wife left with my son. I had a heated discussion with this guy and explained that the grandma cannot stand or walk without lots of leg pain. This is clear when you watch her walk. It is slow. It is arduous.

I asked if he had a chair for her if she can’t rest while paying for my son to play. His extraordinarily rude answer: she should have her own wheelchair!

He looks like he’s in his twenties. I asked him if he has a grandma. His answer: no. Apparently he has not yet experienced the aging of a grandparent or parent and has no understanding of what it is to get older or the path one takes to a wheelchair.

So then I fully grasped the depth of his ignorance about life. We reached a relatively neutral tone in the discussion, and I left seriously put off by the entire ridiculous encounter.

The whole family was excited to have found that train simulator for my son (it’s his favorite game in all of Japan). He would’ve been playing for a long time more if that staffer hadn’t intervened with such an unbelievably insensitive approach to managing his arcade.

Without him, the arcade would be fantastic. But with him, you might get harassed. I’d be interested to see if he’s as rude to Japanese locals. I won’t be hanging around the arcade long enough to...

Have only visited two times, both on weekday afternoons. I had a great time with the crane games. I found the claw strength a mix of difficult and easy so I thought it was fair. Took home a lot of prizes. Another Taito Station is located across so I went in and out of both arcades. I didn’t ask for help from the staff with any the settings as I just wanted to have a nice, quiet time but they look friendly enough. Saw them helping a lot of customers. Toys are quickly replenished too. It was easy to change bills to 100 Yen coins. There are a lot of money changing machines around the arcade and you can put your coins in a cup. Plastic bags of various sizes are also available near the machines...

The male staff in long hair had a very bad attitude, he was very hostile when we asked for his advice on how to play the game. He suddenly yelled at us when we used our body language to consult about the claw position. We open the Google translate app and tried to communicate with him, but obviously he can speak a bit of English (when he yelled at us), he still rejected to communicate through our Google translate app open. The shop doesn’t seem to...