Won't Miss #205 - NTT's badgering

My husband and I have used NTT's (Nippon Telephone and Telegraph - the equivalent of AT&T in the U.S.) services since we initially arrived in Japan. We started paying about $550 for a land line, because NTT had a monopoly and anyone who wanted a line had to put down a huge deposit. We then bought their ISDN service, then ADSL, then upgraded ADSL. As of late, NTT has been badgering us to upgrade to their fiber-optic "hikari fiber" service. Up until the past few years, we had a pretty good relationship with NTT, but they've been in overdrive about their fiber-optic services. People have been coming to our door and bothering us, sometimes several times a week. I have gotten phone calls from people again and again. The worst part is that I've told the callers that they need to send me more detailed information and that I'll seriously consider the upgrade, and then they never send it. And then someone else calls me and we start all over again with a new crop of people badgering me and my asking for information and never getting it. 

I'm sick and tired of NTT's aggressive sales tactics and inability to follow up with information and I won't miss it.

Will Miss #159 - easily scaring off solicitors

Newspaper salespeople are a scourge in Tokyo. They frequently come to the door and sometimes aggressively try to convince people to buy subscriptions. I've been told by my Japanese acquaintances that sometimes the salespeople get angry and rude if they are turned down. Some even bang on the door, try to grab the door and yank it open, and one apparently tossed something angrily at a door. Being a foreigner though, I can scare off 95% of solicitors by simply speaking English. Newspaper salespeople in particular tend to simply walk away without another word once I say "yes?" in answer to the doorbell's ring.

I'll miss being able to spook unwanted visitors merely by speaking a few words in my native tongue.