Santokutei — Restaurant in Kyoto

RUDE OLD Lady at Santokutie! Muy feo! Akunin 悪

We love Japan, Japanese people, and cultures all over the world. 99.99% of the time in Japan the only rude people are the tourists, and we do our best to remain respectful while educating others to be respectful as well.

After purchasing drinks from the old lady at Santokutie using proper respectful Japanese (with English accent) we were first met with rude and dismissive behavior. We shrugged it off as we never want to cause a scene.

Upon looking to dispose of the trash from the items we just purchased from her, she refused VERY RUDLEY. I pointed to the sign that said "only trash purchased from the store can be discarded here" and she turned her back and left while muttering about us loudly. Of course we apologized in Japanese for any confusion and carried our trash down with us, but we were hurt. She left a bad taste and much disrespect to this establishment, the owners, and her family. Fushimi Inari is amazing, but please avoid Santokutie until that old lady is educated on respect from Japanese children shows.

I've added a geolocation of pictures I took near Santokutie to ensure it was correct.

I will be back to see if...

I second, no third, no fourth, the several previous comments about the very unprofessional and poor customer service of the owners of this store. It gave me quite a shock to receive such a treatment after the nice time I had been having hiking up to the shrines, and their attitude contrasts quite starkly from other store owners at shrines.

Why are you speaking informally to your customers? Why do you change your demeanor based on your customer’s country of origin? You seem to be under the impression that visitors to Japan who are not entirely fluent in the language would not know the difference between formal and informal speech, but we do.

What I experienced and observed at this store was that the owners were being very dismissive and rude towards non-Japanese customers, furrowing their brows, using brash body language towards them, and unabashedly speaking informally towards them, whereas they spoke to Japanese customers using formal speech.

If you’re looking to have a stop while on your visit to Fushimi Imari, I’d recommend stopping at a different store to protect your experience here from being spoiled. There are plenty of...

The old lady clerk was extremely rude and hostile with us. If we did something wrong then we would understand it but we did nothing to her. We treated her with respect and dignity and expect the same treatment.

We simply inquired about buying one of the t-shirts at her shop and she gave us a hostile look and started muttering rude things in Japanese. My Japanese is not perfect but I understand enough to know she was being extremely disrespectful.

I have traveled all over Japan and all over the world and for some reason, only in Kyoto, I keep encountering some very hostile people. It's a shame some Japanese ruin the nice...