Toka to small for Tokyo to care about?

You know I said that I'd ordered my Summer Sonic tickets last week? Well, I got am email yesterday from CrissCross KK, the ticket agent, to say that their courier couldn't find my house. In fact, the courier said there was no building in Tokamachi with the building number I quoted. So I counted to ten, resisted the urge to reply "but it does exists, I'm sat in that house now", and resent my address in kanji. I've just been told that the courier has found the address (I guess on some database) and I'll get my tickets in 2 to 3 days. Yay!! Why they couldn't have asked Tokamachi Post Office the first time round I don't know. Still, at least they're on their way!

The incident has made me realise how much I'm taking for granted the high level of Job Competence over here. I think the reason why Japan has a reputation for everything working like clockwork is because everyone trys to do their best to accomplish their job. From what I've experienced, there's no knocking off early on Friday afternoon. There's no "Sorry I'm late, the traffic was terrible" when you turn up late. There's no "Right, 5pm, I'm off" when there's things to be done. People go out of their way to do a good job. I could never imagine finding this kind of attutide so prevailent in the UK.

And thinking back to my past experiences when moving flat in London, BT and British Gas could do with learning a thing or two from Japan.