Enjoying my favorite samurai costume drama early one morning, I heard the doorbell ring. I quickly threw on some underwear and opened the door to find a young delivery guy with a package from Amazon that I presumed my girlfriend had ordered.
I handed the guy a 10,000 yen bill -- the only cash I had on me -- to cover the 2,000 yen delivery charge, but he looked troubled and began speaking in rapid Japanese.
Using all the guile and linguistic resources at my disposal, I quickly picked up the phone and called my girlfriend, who had a lengthy discussion with the delivery guy. My girlfriend then explained to me that he was going to go to the nearest store to get change.
He headed off down five steep flights of stairs in a building with no elevator and walked the 500 meters to the shop.
About 10 minutes later, a smiling, red-faced delivery guy returned, and handed me my change and the ham sandwich I'd also asked him to get me. -- Jim