Life Imitates Art Imitates Life

Wow.

I've always found kanji fascinating. Often they are pictographs that resemble the concept they represent, and usually they can be combined together logically to form other words (eg. the kanji characters for suck, blood and evil-spirit combine together to form the word for vampire.

Cool huh?

Well, yesterday, the same day that we received our rent renewal notice, I stumbled upon another insight into how the Japanese culture and language are intertwined. I discovered that the kanji for bribery (wai), is also the kanji for boarding (makanau) as in to pay rent.

Should I be surprised, really?