Oh ok. Yes, some places put your change in a tray (which I've seen in the US too), but you still hand money directly to them. It's really not the same thing that's discussed in the article.
right, I guess it's a bit more 'both ways' in Japan, maybe because of the aversion to phyiscal contact and love of politeness....but same thing basically. I recall seeing them in Berlin/DE most often at train station cafes/Bäckerei etc
Isn't it common in Restaurants to leave the money in a tray?
Something much more weird I think is the money envelopes. I once took classes by a Japanese lady who, the day before we would pay for the next month, gave us these envelopes the size of a bill and asked us to bring the money in them, said that Japanese never hand money directly, always in envelopes. The next day she took the envelopes and didn't even open them to count the money.
This is a common practice that started out in Western culture. It was, and still is, considered more polite to receive your bill and put your change on a tray. Go to an extremely expensive restaurant and you'll see. Here in America, we now prefer the billfold instead of the tray for privacy reasons, but the concept is exactly the same.
You probably just didn't notice, because it is totally normal to not use them, but they they are common.
I think they see the most use at places like bakeries, where high counters make handing money over directly harder.
Actually I can't even imagine handing cash directly to someone - this kind of seems rude to me. It would be even worse if the note was folded. Doing this also might involve hand contact (which again might make someone uncomfortable). (I'm from Northern Europe).
In Finland we give the cash/receipts straight to the person. Nothing rude about it. I don't remember there ever being any hand contact involved in it. I guess some restaurants might use trays, but not the ones that I ever go to.
