Kakari-chou (The Chief Clerk)

When some Japanese people see me, they can’t seem to resist talking about England. Sometimes I find out the funniest things from this. Last night, a bald man in his late 40’s started chatting to me in a bar in Osaka. His nickname was Kakari-chou, apparently because he was stuck in that job at work.

As soon as I entered the bar, he began talking to me about トリッカーズ　(Tricker’s). He owns 12 pairs of them, and he told me King Charles wears them. He was shocked how little I knew about them. Quite frankly I was too.

He then started telling anyone who’d listen about marmite. Every Englishman has it in their fridge apparently.

The flood of questions and trivia eventually dried up. It seemed we could finally talking about something else. Then his face suddenly lit up and his eyes bulged as he recalled something he’d always wanted to know: ‘Is it true that you put sixpence in a bride’s shoe for good fortune?”

The question felt like a stick out of a bush, a yabu kara bo moment. When I told him I’d never even seen a sixpence before, he cracked up with laughter. As well as knowing a lot of trivia, he had an endearing capacity to laugh at his own foolishness.