(Edited - decided that it wasn't passive aggressiveness. Oops)
For the first time, I realised that my Business Chinese class is a good thing. Without it, I may not have noticed the hint I was given today.
To give some context, due to some concerns about a damaged nuclear plant in Japan I had to start cancelling my arrangements in Japan. While I knew the rest of Japan was ok, I had to pass through Tokyo on my flight in, which had suffered too much radiation contamination for my comfort. (Even a water plant supplying Tokyo was affected. Although the levels of radiation were not dangerous, the fact that it spread that far was a concern.) That's why I was really apologetic when I had to cancel my hostel stay in Kyoto, which is really far away. I even suggested that I would go back to this hostel in the future.
My email was replied really quickly, and surprise plus the fact that I was rushing for a meeting made me glance through the reply. When I first read the email, I thought it was a really pleasant reply - the hostel staff said they understood my concerns, and even kindly proved a situation update on the nuclear power plant. As a news junkie who had been reading up on the nuclear power plant situation, I appreciated the concern and care in giving me an update. I even contemplated a thank you email.
After some hours when the first impression had a chance to die down, I read the email again. The impression I got was really different! Mostly because this time I read the situation update. Only then did I realise that the nuclear power plant update was a thinly veiled rebuke on my cancellation. There is no adverse impact from the nuclear power plant on Kyoto, the update declared. To top it all off, it attempted to pull at my emotional heartstrings by pleading with me to reconsider my decision and declaring that the hostel was "very much willing to support northeast Japan, but if all the tourists are gone from Japan, we can no longer exist. (Unable to support them or even ourselves.)"
Definitely no thank you email then. I considered writing a passive aggressive email about how I would definitely provide support to Japan through receptive hostels, but decided against it. Silence, I decided, would be passive-aggressive enough.
Edit: Then I realised that I was being an ass and was actually feeling bad about it. Oops.
2 comments:
For what it is worth, when you have options, you shouldn't feel guilty about exercising them. The Japan you were going to travel to in February, isn't the same one that's there today. At some point, Japan will return to "normal," but until it does, no one should feeling guilty about assuming unnecessary risk no matter how small the risk may be. Just my two cents. ~ Bill
The edit was because I felt bad about reading a honest sharing of information as an attempt to scold me. I would have cancelled my hostel reservation either way, but I could have reacted better to it.
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