Whenever I think of Kyoto, I think of this one story about a Japanese businessman whose client complimented him on his watch. Sounds nice, right? Nope. The anecdote went viral on Twitter with one netizen remarking, "京都の嫌味以上に相手に通じないものはない” (Kyōto no iyami ijō ni aite ni tsūjinai mono wa nai, There's nothing as obtuse as a Kyoto complaint.)

You see, the customer was not interested in the businessman's watch. He had, apparently, thought the meeting was going on too long and was trying to get the businessman to look at the time, indirectly trying to pressure him to wrap things up. So, in Kyoto, いい時計していますな (ii tokei shite-imasu na, that’s a nice watch you’ve got there) can be a way to bring a meeting to a close.

While Kyoto is especially famous for its elliptical passive-aggressiveness, Japanese culture is notably high-context and requires a lot of implicit information and nuanced communication. English, on the other hand, is part of a low-context culture in which complaints are often stated outright. While work and life abroad can be difficult, complaining in Japanese like you would in English can come off as downright rude.