The 10,000 Yen incident

Last night after the gig I was having a drink with some of the guys in the band and was reminded of this story from Japan.

The first night I was in Tokyo I went to a jazz club with Lou and a friend of his. At the end of the night our bill came and I owed 900 Yen (about $9). I put in a 1,000 Yen bill and a few minutes later the waiter comes back and hands me a 10,000 Yen bill (about $100). I say "no, this is too much" but the waiter is insistent that is the change I am owed. I figure maybe I made a mistake and took the money. Later that evening I was looking through my wallet and found my ATM receipt, I had only withdrawn 10,000 Yen that day so the waiter had given me too much change. I felt weird about it, but what are you gonna do, ya know?

A few days later I was in Osakusa with Lauryn. We went to bank to get some more money. I stepped up to the ATM Machine and what was sitting there? Another 10,000 Yen bill! At this point I think "this is a test, someone up there is F'in' with me." I wanted no part of that 10,000 Yen, it felt like devil money! So I took the bill back in to the bank and gave it to one of the tellers. I tried explaining what had happened even though it was obvious he didn't speak English.

A few minutes later he comes back out and hands me a present. Weird, right? He was bowing and saying "thank you" so it was obvious that this gift was for returning the money. It was wrapped so I open it. Guess what it was ...

... a dishtowel

Not even a nice one. A thin, terricloth dishtowel. How crazy is that? Lauryn and I laughed our asses off, what a crazy, random gift to give someone. What's even crazier is that they have stuff like that laying around just in case there's a gift they need to give.

It's obviously a cultural thing. A couple of guys got some girls they met in a pub on the guest list to see our show. They brought them thank you gifts as well ... Stickers. A "no smoking" sticker and an "exit" sticker.

Wacky stuff man, wacky.