Category: Society

There are 1.000, 2.000, 5.000 y 10.000 notes but the 2.000 yen ones are really rare. It’s pretty difficult to get one of those, sometimes you are lucky withdrawing from an ATM or if you ask in your bank office. After more than one year without seeing any 2.000 yen bills I was shopping in Akihabara with my friend Ramón Sangüesa and I realized he had ¡MANY 2.000 yen bills! Here are two of them that Ramón gave to me:

In the year 2.000 a G8 summit was celebrated in Okinawa. In order to conmemorate the millinium change and the G8 summmit in Okinawa the Bank of Japan created the 2.000 yen bill (year 2.000, 2.000 yens 😉 ). They printed 100.000.000 bills, not many, and I think they never printed more. That’s why is so rare and collectors keep them.

On one side of the bill there is a scene from “Genji Monogatari”, one of the first novels writen in Japanese. On the other side there is the Shureimon gate. This gate is the Shuri’s castle main door in Okinawa. Shureimon’s gate was the first structure from the castle (The most important one in Okinawa) that was resconstructed after the end of the war. It’s a symbol of recovery and splendor of Okinawa. People in Okinawa are very proud of the 2.000 yen bill and they keep them instead of using them!

Shureimon’s gate in Okinawa.

Japan is the country in the world with more suicide cases per capita and Tokyo is the city with more suicides in Japan. Some days ago I found this ad inside a train. It is a campaign organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in order to try to reduce suicide cases. The ad says: “Life is important”, “In this life there is many people important/who needs you/who waits for you” and “Let’s help to reduce suicides in Tokyo!”. I wonder what would think a person who is gonna commit suicide if he/she sees this ad… I’m sure there are more effective ways to reduce suicides (A really big problem in this society).

23 million dollars is the money that Tokyo inhabitants found on the streets and returned to lost and found offices during the year 2002. 72% of that money was recovered by the original owners and the 19% was given to the people who found the money if nobody claimed it within 6 months.

Umbrellas are the item that gets lost more times in Tokyo, every year between 300.000 and half million umbrellas are stored in lost and found offices. But it seems nobody cares about them, only 0.3% are claimed, that’s why more than 10 million umbrellas are accumulated in Tokyo’s lost and found offices, they must have some kind of Guinness world record!

I liked the ending where it explains how Mr.Hirahaya found 13.000 yen. He brought the money to a koban, after some time nobody claimed it and the police gave him back the money. ”I feel uncomfortable holding another person’s money,” Mr. Hirahaya said ”I think many Japanese people feel the same way and hand over something they find. I think among Japanese there’s still a sense of community since ancient times.”

Last week I found this bag and I followed the Japanese way. It was pretty boring to explain to the police that I’ve found it, they asked me all kinds of questions.

More about lost and found at Dannychoo.