The flat next to ours has been empty since before we moved in in September last year, but yesterday the intercom buzzed. It was a young guy and at first I thought he was going to try to sell me something or try get me to pay my NHK license fee (ha, not in this lifetime, suckaz!) but it turned out he'd just moved in and wanted to say hello. I went to the genkan (front door/entranceway of the flat before the step up, where you take off your shoes) and he was there... holding cookies!
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Any man who comes to my door with baked goods is indeed welcome to live in my building!
Seriously, I was touched! It's old-school Japanese style to greet your new neighbours like this and take them a little gift (we did it for the owner of this building/our landlady, who actually lives two floors above us) but I was really surprised that a young guy (about my age or younger) who lives in Tokyo - the city of avoiding all human contact if at all possible! - would actually bother.
Thank you, Mr. Next Door Cookie Man, (name changed to protect privacy)... they were yummy!
On a different note, here's a bar I found in Shibuya the other week.
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Really?
I mean, did no one even google this proposed name at the planning stage for possible alternate meanings? "No, I'm firm on this. Bar Pee. It has a ring to it." And this is why Japanese companies really should stop cutting their translation/interpreting budgets before anything else...
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*
Any man who comes to my door with baked goods is indeed welcome to live in my building!
Seriously, I was touched! It's old-school Japanese style to greet your new neighbours like this and take them a little gift (we did it for the owner of this building/our landlady, who actually lives two floors above us) but I was really surprised that a young guy (about my age or younger) who lives in Tokyo - the city of avoiding all human contact if at all possible! - would actually bother.
Thank you, Mr. Next Door Cookie Man, (name changed to protect privacy)... they were yummy!
On a different note, here's a bar I found in Shibuya the other week.
I mean, did no one even google this proposed name at the planning stage for possible alternate meanings? "No, I'm firm on this. Bar Pee. It has a ring to it." And this is why Japanese companies really should stop cutting their translation/interpreting budgets before anything else...