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They're pretty much communal when I visited Tokyo/Kyoto. Pretty much always left the building with a different umbrella than I entered with. Just about everyone
by kenhwang 7y ago
They're pretty much communal when I visited Tokyo/Kyoto. Pretty much always left the building with a different umbrella than I entered with. Just about everyone uses the same $5-10 black/gray/white/clear umbrella. They all go into the umbrella bucket when you enter a building. Everyone just grabs one on their way out that's close enough to the same as the one the dropped in. Sometimes you leave a building and it's not raining anymore and people forget their umbrella behind. People even just leave them behind before getting on the train and take one from the stop where they get off.
- BurningFrog 7y agoNote that for this to work, people have to only take the umbrella you need. Not grab all of them and sell. BTW: I'm really glad to hear this, because I've been having some regrets about grabbing random umbrellas in Tokyo, because everyone seemed to do it. Glad I did it right after all!
- Polylactic_acid 7y agoI can't even imagine the effort of stealing the office umbrellas and selling them being worth it.
- ben0x539 7y agoYeah, right? Who would buy them when you can just grab free umbrellas at every office?
- BurningFrog 7y agoStill, I'd expect this system to break down in most non-Japan places because of things like this.
- Aeolun 7y agoOnly grab an umbrella if you also deposited one! There’s nothing more annoying than to come out of a store and find all umbrellas gone.
- sholnay 7y agoWhile I was in Tokyo a couple months ago, I put my common black/clear umbrella in the ramen shop rack. Upon exit, I was forced to grab another as mine had been nabbed. I felt horrible grabbing someone else's umbrella (though I still did haha)! I feel relieved to learn this is ok.