You cannot expect people to just understand from the situation. You can, however, tell them what is up. Besides, it was an opportunity for a small business to learn how to use credit cards.

@Noldor130884 You can absolutely expect someone to understand after experiencing the same situation 4 times. Reading the atmosphere of situations is a basic social skill. Failing to apply it once I can understand, but 4 times? Perhaps this is another cultural difference, but I expect any tourist to be mindful that things might be different from what they're used to and therefore that they are more watchful for social differences.

@Samthere I agree with you in principle, but that isn't the sort of situation the OP describes. I get the distinct impression that each time, the staff was visibly inconvenienced if not outright distressed by the episode. That's what I mean when I speak of 'reading the atmosphere'. To me, it seems self-centered to assume everything was fine because it all worked out in the end for 'me'.

@Cronax absolutely not. If I went to a restaurant (which accepts credit cards), and after a couple of beers I had to wait 20 minutes for the bill, I wouldn't even notice. Especially if the same happened 4 times. Especially if only one time I have experienced a problem (with the entire bill charged to one credit card), while the rest were transparent to me. Especially if no one told me about the cultural problem.

@Noldor130884 You'd assume that everything was fine when the staff is right in front of you acting distressed and clearly trying their best but (nearly) failing to somehow accomodate you?

@Cronax You are assuming the guests noticed. For all we know they could have taken that as incompetence. Look, I get everything you are saying and everything the OP is saying, but we are talking about interpersonal skills, right? I mean, why not just say to people what there is to know?

@Noldor130884 That's where the 4 times comes in. I could chalk a singular occurance up to incompetence, but when 4 different restaurants all have the same problem? It seems very unlikely (and to me, arrogant to assume) that somehow all the servers in the city/country are incompetent.

@Cronax maybe I misunderstood (was it in 4 restaurants? I'm not sure the questions says it), but still... Why won't just telling them what the problem is just solve the issue?

Hi, I don't think we disagree on the point you mention, I agree that telling them is a good idea, but I still feel like the 'guest' in this situation can be expected to notice when they are inconveniencing people.

Absolutely. And I totally agree to that.

if you don't come to me, I come to you, and if you come to me, I don't have to

I think that's largely what ruffled my feathers about your answer, it gives the impression that the guest is fully correct in assuming that it will be explained to them when they are being rude or the like, when in fact in most cultures, saying something like that is deeply insulting

Wait, I'm not saying you should point-blank say "you're rude", and I'm sorry about the feeling that my answer is giving, but my point was exactly what I told you just above.

I live in Germany, very near to the Oktoberfest. A couple of colleagues from abroad came, and didn't know it's customary to leave a tip to the waiters. In their country you wouldn't normally leave a tip, but since tips are mostly "optional", they'd assume to pay for their meal and nothing else. I gave tips multiple times while eating with them and tried to display that more than once. After a couple of times I said that: "hey guys, please consider leaving them a tip, since it's customary here"

"and by not doing that, you are not appearing exactly kind to them"

I have to say, in general if a restaurant claims to accept credit cards and has a card machine I would naturally assume that they can, you know, accept credit cards, otherwise they would have made it "cash only" or "CC payments for entire table only" etc. So it does feel a bit strange that the foreign visitors would somehow figure out that lying about acceptance of credit cards is the norm unless you tell them

As an aside, I know in Canada there a few restaurants that I go to that are cash only, in a society where vast majority of payments is done with cards. If they can thrive here, you'd think in Japan it'd be even less of a problem to have a cash only sign if they don't want to deal with CCs, or is there a law that obligates them to accept it?