▲ 263 points
back
170 comments
They are also in use in Germany and it never occurred to me that they may not be used all over the world. They are called [Zahl|Wechselgeld][teller|schale] [1] which translates to [paying|change] [plate|bowl]. They can not be found in every shop but probably in the majority. Some people use them, some don't. And it is more common to present the change in them than the payment. The obvious purpose is of course to easily be able to see that the amount is correct while avoiding escaping coins. They also often show ads, nowadays on displays. And nobody moves them around in Germany, they just sit on top of the counter.
I live in the Netherlands, only a few kilometers from Germany, but I've never seen any. Is it everywhere in Germany, or only certain regions?
The only similar thing I've ever seen is at things like amusement parks or where ferry tickets are sold: the cashier is behind glass and talks to you through a microphone (and you to them). Exchange of tickets and money goes through a rotating tray sort of thing that is below the glass and is moved by the person behind the glass. I find it very impersonal and not a nice way of doing business. Surely we can talk like normal human beings?
Of course that is different from change trays, there is no glass or microphones involved there, but it's the closest thing I can think of.
As an aside, I can see why it might be more common in Germany than in the Netherlands: you guys pay almost always by cash (taking forever when the cashier goes "do you perhaps have 23 cents with that?" to make the change round) whereas here bank card, and especially the quick wireless option is more and more prevalent.
Often they are just not used, though.
Probably contrary to the Japanese custom as described in the article I personally always feel slightly self-conscious when using them (to hand someone the money). It feels distant and maybe a bit impolite to me, though I don’t know how shared that feeling is. (Please note that I’m not claiming that using the tray is somehow inherently impolite or distant. When it comes to etiquette the concept of universal truth is even more problematic than it otherwise already is.)
My usual approach is to hand over the money directly if there is little time and the cashier is already looking at me, expecting the money, and to put it on the tray if the cashier is currently still doing something else and I have a bit of time to properly prepare the money while the cashier is looking elsewhere. (It basically gives me a proper place to put the money when the cashier cannot yet directly take it.) I’m not sure how shared my feeling and my approach on this are among others.
Also, in my experience cashiers differ wildly in how they will use those trays to hand you your change. Some will use them, some just won’t. I never payed any attention as to whether there’s any pattern to that, though. I mean, is the proper use of that tray part of the instructions when starting somewhere? Is it just personal preference?
Yes! This article is an excellent example of how everybody (including Japan) loves to portray Japanese culture as unique and different.
It's not about the tray but how they are used in Japan. Completely different from how they are used in Germany.
Interesting. I studied in Hesse for a semester and don't recall seeing these, at least not extensively.
Used in France too, in a variety of sizes and shapes, from a rubber mat on a counter, to a small plastic bowly thing with a clip (securing the bill, or banknotes) in restaurants (in which case the back and forth protocol for change operates as described in the article).
I always assumed their purpose is to minimize touching of the hands between vendor and customer.
We also have them in Spain!
Pretty common in Switzerland as well.
Same in Poland.
Pro tip: if you want to review the correct pronunciation of the word "gai-jin," skip the tray and hand your cash directly to the clerk.
They may call you gaijin, but you get perks for being one. I look completely like Japanese (well, I was born there; but I lived in the States long enough, and I am gaijin by my definition, but it's not by theirs) -- so when I travel to Japan, I'd naturally hand money to clerk, either he/she would either give me this funny looks, or told politely (occasionally frustrated) to place that money on the tray.
So sometimes I get the worst of the both status there...
This comment only makes sense if you know what "gaijin" means, it appears to mean roughly "foreigner" (or more literally "outside person").
Can verify, have done. The clerk looked horrified and shook her head vigorously while pointing at the coin tray.
I'd be very surprised if anyone actually said this in front of you, unless you are also being obnoxious in other ways.
This is crazy talk. To a rough approximation Japanese shop clerks are the politest organisms on earth. On top of which, these change trays are a simple nicety, not some kind of social obligation.
Lived in Japan for 8 years and have worked part time in cafes .. The training I got was to leave the money in the tray until you confer the change to the customer. It prevents things like "hang on! I gave you 5000 not 1000!" - the money paid stays in plain sight until the transaction is complete. Shop staff almost never put the money away before you get your change.
I always assumed this was the main reason the trays are used. This, and the fact that either party can easily tip the tray into their hand to gather change, rather than picking up coins one by one or scooping them off the edge of the table.
Whenever Japan comes up people assume some matter of politeness is involved, but a lot of times the explanation is much simpler.
A common analog in the U.S. Is to place the tender across the till dividers until the change is counted out, to prevent just such a scenario.
I believe the penalties for stealing are severe in Japan. So anything that disambiguates who's money is whos is very important.
There is a much older custom that seems so similar it is hard to imagine that it is not related. When passing an item to someone - say a cup to a house guest - one is traditionally never supposed to hand the item directly to the other person - i.e. never directly from hand to hand. Typically this meant placing the item on a tray (お盆) and offering the item on the tray to the person (or at least placing the item in front of the person for them to pick up). You can see examples of this today in, for example, formal Shinto ceremonies a ceremonial square tray is often used (折敷) or frankly at any fancy kaiseki restaurant.
I'm not sure about the origin of the custom, but perhaps the action of taking something out of someone's hand feels too close to taking it forcefully from them - i.e. for the same reason it is considered impolite for two people to hold the same piece of food by chopstick (for example, if passing food between people from chopstick to chopstick).
>
I'm not sure about the origin of the custom, but perhaps the action of taking something out of someone's hand feels too close to taking it forcefully from them - i.e. for the same reason it is considered impolite for two people to hold the same piece of food by chopstick (for example, if passing food between people from chopstick to chopstick).
Isn't the chopstick thing related to funeral rituals?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_funeral
> The relatives pick the bones out of the ashes and transfer them to the urn using large chopsticks or metal picks, two relatives sometimes holding the same bone at the same time with their chopsticks (or, according to some sources, passing the bones from chopsticks to chopsticks). Known as kotsuage (骨揚げ?), this is the only time in Japan when it is proper for two people to hold the same item at the same time with chopsticks. At all other times, holding anything with chopsticks by two people at the same time, or passing an item from chopsticks to chopsticks, will remind all bystanders of the funeral of a close relative and is considered to be a major social faux pas.
Think about the protocol in CS terms...
Hand to hand western style is 1:1 blocking I/O, both the payer and recipient must be simultaneously active at the same moment.
At a restaurant/bar this tray is the worlds smallest FIFO and you put a packet into the packet buffer at your convenience and the service worker clears the buffer at their convenience, and this protocol is considered so polite that even at convenience stores when you're in a line you still use the FIFO buffer and pretend you're both not in a hurry and have plenty of time for proper, measured, unhurried service, even when you don't actually have the time. Its impolite to force a two concurrent processes to deadlock waiting a simple packet buffer transfer, and even if they do, they like to pretend its not happening.
If the trays looked nicer it would have been an obvious conspicuous consumption opportunity. The cheap store has injection molded plastic; we have marble trays; they have antique engraved ebony.
I wonder how or if they handle what CS would call transaction locks, to make sure the other process doesn't grab the buffer to empty it while the filler is still shoveling in small change. Not having been to Japan yet, I'm guessing the tray moves and at least subtly you somehow indicate you're done filling the bucket before the service worker starts emptying it.
I had another model based on traditional innumeracy, if traditionally payers were innumerate you shovel coins onto the bucket until the service worker sees enough and takes away the bucket. I find this model theoretically possible to implement although highly unlikely in practice.
Question: Is money considered "dirty" in Japan?
In North America, women keep bills and coins in their purses next to used tissues, and studies have shown that men's wallets have an even higher concentration of bacteria than women's purses. We sit on and, on hot days, sweat on our money all day. Let's face it, the stuff is pretty disgusting. However, if somebody hands you a twenty, your first reaction is usually not, "Oh gross, now I need to wash my hands".
In terms of hygiene, it makes sense for waiters to collect currency on trays so they don't have to wash their hands after every bill is settled (assuming it's a different person's job to take the cash off the tray and put it in the till). Could this be the reason the practice started? The connection between disease and microbes would have existed around the time these trays appeared, so it's possible a crusading doctor or someone similar convinced vendors to use these trays.
I was with my friend at a bar in Osaka, and we'd had a few. The waiter came over and set down a circular change tray. I being a little intoxicated assumed he wanted me to use a coaster, so I picked up my glass and set it on it. He was not amused by this and shot me a VERY stern look - and then it clicked. We left soon after, quite embarrassed.
Restaurants in the US use small trays to confer bills and money all the time. What makes this Japan-specific?
Department stores in the U.S. (At least in Minneapolis) used to ferry payment via baskets on wires from the clerk up to an accounting room where the money was counted, change made, and delivered back to the customer via the same contraption.
Is it possible that it could be related to change needing to be weighed to be determined legitimate, or simply as a way of measuring the amount? (like paying with gold dust in the Yukon or what have you)
Beyond that I can see it being a result of extreme cultural stratification, as the article touches on - that it would be seen as demeaning for a higher-class person to put money directly into the lower-class person's hand.
It's quite interesting that no one has any clear idea! I love little mysteries like this.
Phillipe the Original in downtown Los Angeles has used these as long as I can remember. Phillipe is an old school sandwich place (they claim to have invented the "French dip"), not a Japanese establishment. I wonder now why they're using them: I had mistakenly assumed it was some pre-WWII Western custom that they kept alive for that authentic vintage feel.
This makes me think I should pick one of these up for my daughter to carry around. She can't rotate her hands to a palm-up position, which causes no end of hassle and confusion when getting change from retail transactions.
Wait, what countries don't use these? At least in Canada every restaurant that isn't fast-food is going to give you the receipt and change on a tray or in a leather booklet.
When I was in Japan, I would always put the money in the tray, but the cashier would always return directly to my hand. I didn't understand why.
"Instead of handing your payment to the clerk, or setting it on the counter by the cash register, here you are generally expected to put your payment into a tray that is presented expressly for the purpose. The clerk takes it away and returns it with your change."
Either I'm missing something from the context or author is mistaken. Trays and boxes in multiple forms and sizes are used everywhere in restaurants in Europe and ex-USSR countries. In banks and similar facilities people usually hand over cash via some special trays built in the counter because of the glass separating customer and clerk.
In fact I don't remember a single restaurant in 20 or so countries where I could go to the counter pay there directly or leave cash on the counter. In every case when I tried this (I wanted to speed up things) I was told to go and wait for the waiter, who will bring a tray where I will put cash or card (in cases when card terminal in not wireless).
> “It’s an interesting question,” the curator I spoke to allowed
I wonder if non native English speakers find this expression (or the use of "allowed") confusing.
Was just in Japan and encountered these everywhere. We knew to use them from our research prior to the trip. Initially I was under the impression it was to prevent the spread of germs, but that didn't really line up because the money comes into contact with the cashier's hand regardless if the tray is used or not. I guess it could help reduce the amount of small hand-to-hand contact that is sometimes experienced when you place money in someones hand directly.
It was easier for the cashier to glance at the amount we had placed in the tray and help us count out the correct amount of money for our first few days there while trying to get accustomed to the types of currency.
Currently travelling through Japan for the first time. They ask if you have now finished placing the cash that you wish to pay with. This means I have been able to put notes in the tray and then shuffle through my coins attempting to get rid of as many 5Y and 1Y coins as I can. Cash in such a modern technology forward country is still weird. I have already broken my wallet due to the over use of the coin pouch. Prior to coming here it had never been used. New Zealand, where I am from adopted Eftpos over 25 years ago. We are already chip and pin, and pay wave has found its way into most POS areas. Japan is behind here but in a way I find to be very enjoyable.
The difference between the west and Japan in regard to change trays is that in the west (US, Canada, Europe, etc.) they're often available in a small subset of cash payment scenarios, but in Japan they're always available in every cash payment scenario. Not to mention that even when they are available in the west, they're rarely used, but in Japan they're always used. I've lived in the US, Spain, and Japan for considerable periods of time, and the level to which they're available and customarily used in Japan is what makes them such a noteworthy use case.
In Japan, anytime you hand someone cash in personal life it's rude not to put it in an envelope. Examples includes gifts or paying your Japanese teacher.
The tray avoids passing cash hand to hand. 20 years ago, clerks (or taxi drivers) would be visibly surprised and slightly shocked if you tried to hand them cash. But that's relaxed a lot now. Tourists hand cash to clerks and the reaction is slight if at all. Taxi drivers often exchange cash hand to hand. It's still more polite to use the tray but less strict.
In the bar I used to work in we used to give the change to customers on a tray to prompt the customer to give us a tip. So I always assume that's why they are being used.
These are common in Turkey and generally used in both sides of a transaction. I saw them in Syria as well (10 years ago). There, it seemed that part of the purpose was to mitigate "accidental" physical contact between men and women. Several women I knew there complained about guys getting fresh (touching their fingers or hands) during transactions. The tray prevented this. In Turkey though, I think it is more for transparency in the transaction.
We have these in Canada, I'm pretty sure I've used these in Pennsylvania and Michigan as well, not sure where these aren't used actually.
And as one shopkeeper explained it, offering change in a tray feels more polite than simply placing money in a customer’s hand.
See also English Victorian change packets:
http://boingboing.net/2012/04/30/victorian-change-packets-li...
come on, this is common in EU..Germany etc, too
I remember these being common in Canada at least as late as the mid-1980s. Usually branded with a credit card logo.
Unrelated, but interesting custom: Koreans (possibly others of the Asian persuasion) generally will hand you change with both hands (possibly with a small bow), it's considered rude to hand cash with only one hand. No idea why.
Genuinely curious now ... if the trays are meant to avoid hand contact, how do things work in drive-thrus there?
Fairly common to get some level of hand-contact there when passing around money, credit cards or food bags.
My favourite part of this article was the description of an entirely trust-based retail economy that has now - sadly but inevitably - vanished.
I thought money trays were ubiquitous all over the world. Any examples where they are not widely used?