Stories that land

Adachi’s Coworker Offers to Buy a Drink

At nineteen, Adachi was cleaning a hotel when a coworker offered to buy him a drink. He remembers what became of their short break.

A hotel-cleaning job at nineteen

Comedian Adachi introduces himself here as being from giggle. He recalls a part-time hotel-cleaning job he had at nineteen. Here is his story.

“I’ll buy you a drink”

Adachi from giggle here!

This happened when I was nineteen, working part-time cleaning a hotel. If you’ve done that kind of work, you’ll know: it gets pretty dirty. Even taking out the trash is a lot of work when there’s that much of it.

There was a guy there, Tajima, who was about fifty. A scruffy guy with nose hair sticking out. One day the two of us finished a cleaning job ahead of schedule. We didn’t want to get sent off to do another one, so we decided to take a little break.

Then Tajima said, “I’ll buy you a juice. Apple, orange, grape—whatever you like.”

I thought, he might be scruffy, but he’s a thoughtful guy. “Apple, please,” I said.

He went off to buy them somewhere. A while later he came back, holding a drink in each hand. And these weren’t cans or anything. They were a liter and a half!

A liter and a half of grape for Tajima. A liter and a half of apple for me!

We’re sneaking a quick break. How am I supposed to drink a liter and a half?

I figured there was no way I could finish it, so I put mine down by my feet. Tajima looked a bit panicked. “If we leave these here, they’ll find out. Drink it up. We’ll get in trouble if we take them home.”

Meanwhile, he was just gulping down his grape juice. This fifty-year-old guy, nose hair sticking right out.

Gulp. Gulp.

What could I do? I just kept drinking…

Illustration of Tajima holding two large bottles labeled apple and grape, while Adachi looks on with his mouth open in surprise.
Text in the illustration:リンゴ → Appleぶどう → Grape

We use AI as part of how we create our articles.

Next story A closed red album tilted against a coral-orange background, with gold-colored Japanese lettering on its cover. A graduation album and a wedding the next dayEarly in his comedy career, a member of Hi-Hi needed a cash gift for a friend’s wedding—and had no usual form of ID.
More stories Two illustrated figures beside a gray microphone: one with spiky brown hair and a patterned blue shirt, the other with short dark hair, a white shirt and red tie, against white and bright green. Ten-yen beer and a trip to the restroomA cheap beer offer brought a comedian and his friends together for an evening he remembers vividly. A front-facing, bare-chested illustrated swimmer in a white cap against a solid blue background; a blank outlined rectangle appears on the cap. I thought I had the perfect swimsuit for the waterslideYamamoto went swimming with friends in the brief-cut swimsuit he favored from his school swimming days. A Hawaii-themed illustration with large yellow HAWAII lettering, two dancing women wearing flowers, palm trees, blue sky, clouds and a brown mountain. Shun goes shirt shopping in HawaiiA trip for his brother’s wedding gave Shun time to look for an aloha shirt—and try out his English. All stories
Start here The Boyfriend Sales Pitch A hopeful dater sweetens the pitch with every no. The friend listening won't budge. 3:36 Watch the whole thing (3:36)