Unlucky apartment numbers—and other mysteries of Japan
Japan SAQ (Seldom Asked Questions) unravels that country’s everyday mysteries for bemused foreigners:
Q. Last summer I was looking around Tokyo for an apartment with my girlfriend. Outside one of the rental offices there was a placard advertising REALLY nice places for super cheap rent. Then my g.f. warned me that they were `bad luck` apartments. I looked and they all had the same apartment number. I can`t for the life of me remember what the number was. It was a three digit number like 691 or something. Anyway, she told me that it was Japanese police code for homicide…I THINK. Akin to Western apartments having a 666 or a 13th floor in an office building. Have you heard anything about this? I`ve since questioned other Japanese people about it. They`ve confirmed it but they can never remember the number.
A. The answer is 964. This is quite unlucky because 9 (ku) sounds like “suffering” (kurushimu), 96 (kuro) sounds like “troubles” kuro-suru, and 4 (shi) sounds like death (shinu).
(Via Marginal Revolution)