Expect the unexpected

The Japanese are spoiling me. I can already foresee having "issues" when I return to the states. The high standards that are a daily part of life here, will become expectations unmet back home. Now don't get me wrong - I am still an American through and through - I have not gone "native." But I do think there is a lot, a whole lot, that U.S. citizens could learn from the Japanese. They are polite, oh so polite. Their service is impeccable. And they seem to delight and take pride in offering up some type of "ooooooohh!" factor. Like the tea that was served to me and my companions this week. In a tiny little restaurant outside of Kamakura, we stopped for lunch and were offered tea. Not like in the states, where most likely you will get the tea already in a cup and the milk in individual servings in a small plastic tub, each of us received our tea in our own pot, milk in our own pitcher and the tea was poured into a tea cup whose heart shape wasn't revealed until the tea was poured. wow. An inspired and delightful wow factor served up hot.