Avatar

Daebak Dramaland

@daebakdramaland / daebakdramaland.tumblr.com

31 y.o. fangirl from Germany who loves KDrama/JDrama/Manga and Anime ♡ feel free to get in touch ☆
PostsLikes
Avatar
reblogged
Avatar
destinationtoast

My grandmother is Japanese and really likes to give gifts. Often those gifts are Japanese desserts or other food, but sometimes she just slips me cash, folded up inside a tiny, beautiful envelope. But she likes to pretend she's not giving me money, so when possible, she'll hide it somewhere that I will find later.

Today I spent the afternoon with her doing chores and tech support, and she clearly felt this warranted a significant gift in return (no matter that I enjoyed myself). But she forgot to slip something into my pocket or bag before I left, so instead she rushed outside as I was starting my car, making the old-school "roll down the window" gesture. Once I complied, she was forced to acknowledge she was handing me money, but she also tried to minimize the gesture.

The result was that she said, "Thank you, dear! I just wanted you to be able to... to buy yourself a hamburger," and then handed me a darling little envelope that turned out to contain $100. And all I could think was:

GIF by shadow-of-the-dawn
Avatar
destinationtoast

This is the envelope that the $100 came in, for anyone who doesn't know what these look like.

@shoku-and-awe @todayintokyo (or anyone else!) -- is there a specific term for these in Japanese?

Avatar
todayintokyo

Japanese money envelopes! Cultural minefield. I'm not an expert, but the general term is kinpū 金封 or noshibukuro 熨斗袋, but there's one for every occasion. Shūgi-bukuro 祝儀袋 is a gift of celebration, especially at weddings; kōden-bukuro 香典袋 is for funerals; pochibukuro ポチ袋 is a small cute envelope often used for otoshidama お年玉, the money given to small children on New Year's Day.

You received a pochibukuro. (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶✿)

You are using an unsupported browser and things might not work as intended. Please make sure you're using the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge.