Small Adventure 66

Back some months ago, I was walking down the street in the direction of Tenmonkan, and I passed by a building where the ground floor was being renovated. Initially, it had contained the offices for a map printing company, but they'd moved out and the floor space had gone unused for half a year. As I got closer, I saw a little old guy with some papers rolled up under his arm. He was facing off against a taller well-dressed guy in a striped suit, and his female partner. The guy in the suit and the woman seemed to be in their late 40's or early 50's. The dynamic was that the little guy was the contractor for the renovators, and the other two owned the lease on the building. The lease owners were trying to tower over the contractor, but he was completely unintimidated. He just looked up at them and said "We finished the work specified in the contract." The suit guy bellowed "Nan datto!" ("What did you say?") and the woman screeched "Uso dessho" ("You're lying/kidding, right?")

They continued yelling on the sidewalk as I kept going. It's always nice to see a country live up to its reputation for deferential politeness. (Note: The window still has 'Tennant wanted' on it.)