Japanese Politeness

Today I experienced a form of Japanese politeness I think I'd never experience in Austria. I was at Kasumi supermarket paying for the items I bought (BTW, the pumpkin is very oishi!) After the total was on display I put 2000 yen on the counter (they have a special tray for the money) and quickly checked if I'd have any change. I realized that it would take me forever to find it and that I was going to get back exactly 700 anyway. So I stopped my search... and I realized that the clerk had started to do something which I am not sure what it was. Anyway, she gave me the impression that she was really busy, looking at her fingernails, or perhaps cleaning her fingers. If I could speak Japanese I would have liked to say something like, "I'm sorry, I don't have the exact amount". So all I did instead was wait, look at her, and wonder. And she continued. She continued for almost half a minute... doing nothing other than giving me lots of time to look again if I wanted. I was too amazed to react. It took me a while to realize what was going on... and then I finally tried to give her a sign with my hand pointing at the money I had put on the counter... (which of course she already knew that it was there) and that worked. I was very impressed by her patience, especially considering how fast and efficiently they do everything else. (And of course the person in line behind me pretended that they didn't even notice what was going on.)

That's so different from Austria! First of all, the cues are much longer. And the people behind you will occasionally even bump their shopping carts into you! Or if you don't immediatly move on they might even consider passing you. (There are always some very impatient people who can't cope with waiting.) And then once you get to pay, you better do it fast. Because the person behind you might already be stepping on your feet. Sometimes you'll see an old lady trying to get rid of her change and then you'll always find people who seem to be just about to yell at her for waisting time. Even the clerks sometimes get annoyed if you take too long...

Oh, and something else I had noticed (but I'm not sure if this is just something that happens generally in smaller cities)... I was at a traffic light waiting to cross the road. Some cars had wanted to cross and had already moved beyond the pedestrian crossing. Their light turned red.
In Vienna what would happen is that the cars would just stay there (or try to cross over the red light). What happend here is that as soon as the light turned red they backed up. And so did the cars right behind them! They had the pedestrian crossing cleared within a second. Although pedestrians could have easily walked around the cars...
And another thing which amazed me: stop lines. Cars don't stop ontop of them. They stop far away from them (if they are giving way to someone). And if a car is trying to get into a parking space the car behind it will leave so much room that you wonder if the car actually has the intention to pass the car. In Vienna they'll almost bump into you - sometimes making it impossible for you to actually park your car (and sometimes they might take that parking space once you have given up!).