hello! we're your new neighbours!

So, apparently, in Japan, when you move into a new apartment/house/place you go and introduce yourself to your new neighbours with a present...SO...a good month of living in our new place I finally got around to baking a chocolate cake (in our swanky but not-quite-so-new-anymore oven/grill/microwave). Greg cut the cake, and then we wrapped it and tied a little bow around it, ready to offer to our new neighbours, some of whom we've already run into in the entrance or lift...
(yes, it's very exciting...we have a lift - very useful for moving in...)

We first went up to the 6th floor and nervously pressed the door bell. A little old man tottered to the door and gave me and Greg a look of 'and?......' Possibly because I was standing there with a plate full of weird pink triangles on a plate in my outstretched arms and a huge nervous grin on my face.

We tried to explain that we were the new neighbours living on the 5th floor, and would he like some cake. Unfortunately, he kind of misunderstood my cake gesture and tried to take the whole plate. An awkward moment ensued...where I knee-jerked and retracted the proffered plate and said errr.....NO...ONE* cake.... anyway, after we'd exhausted all our Japanese, by describing that we were from England and France, and didn't speak much Japanese....we were left in a little awkward position where we tried to escape from their doorway as gracefully as possible.

We then moved on to the 2nd floor. No one. 3rd floor: a lady answers the intercom, but a man comes to the door (hmmmmmm...) anyway, we offer cake. The lady who I guess answered the phone is hiding behind the guy I guess is her husband and staring at us, but not trying to attract attention... He asks where we are from....and then asks Greg: 'Can you speak English?' to which Greg replies: 'Yes!'. Hurray! So, yeah, his English isn't too bad. With that over we try their neighbour: nothing. 4th floor: nothing. Which doesn't bother Greg in the slightest; because he has more cake now.


*[one or none!]