Shared adversity

A Maru Department Store customer approaches the clock and watch counter.

...

Maru Customer: Those clocks, the ones which keep time by a radio beam.

Technician: Yes?

Maru Customer: Well, I actually have one already, but it’s a got a problem, see, the radio beam function is showing an error message.

Technician: Oh? What brand?

Maru Customer: Seiko, same as those ones. Is there a battery controlling the auto adjustment?

Technician: No. How old is your clock?

Maru Customer: 4, 5, 6 years old. It was a present.

Technician: Cheaper to buy a new one than fix your one.

Maru Customer: Yeah, at 3000 yen, that’d be right. Doesn’t worry me, I just wondered if there was a separate battery for the auto-adjustment. I mean, I changed the main battery and it still showed an error.

Technician: No building going on nearby? To cause interference?

Maru Customer: Nope.

Technician: Interesting. I have the same clock. Same problem. 6 years old and the auto adjustment starts showing an error.

Maru Customer: Ah. That’s good to know. Something inside gives up the ghost then.

Technician: Must be.

_____________________
Voice-over

The technician goes through the questions before she divulges that she too has the same problem.

Once the Maru customer shows no antagonism about what is likely a common defect in the product, a shared experience settles into a comfortable conversation.

“That happened to you? Same thing happened to me. Ha.”

The comfort of shared adversity!

...

Man in the Moon

It’s moon cake time in China and Man in the Moon is challenged:

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Where’ve you been?

MM: What do you mean? “Where’ve I been?”

Well, you haven’t posted anything for a month.

MM: Who’d notice?

Some of us thought you’d DIED!

MM: Things were difficult. For one thing, China.

China?

MM: The site is blocked in China. I couldn’t log on.

But you weren’t in China for a MONTH! You exaggerate.

MM: No, but I was in other places that made me feel like I was.

That difficult?

MM: That difficult.

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Voice-over

A conversation with a LOT of questions. Even questions posing as responses to questions:

Where’ve you been?
What do you mean? “Where’ve I been?”

And a quaint ending:

That difficult?
That difficult.

The falling intonation on the imitated utterance turns the question into a statement.

...