I am excited about taking my first trip to Japan soon, and I am trying to prepare!
I understand that tipping is not generally done, but in some cases, like when asking a special favor of hotel staff or in thanks for extra service from guides or the like, "tips" are given in special envelopes. If I understand the custom, this makes the exchange a gift, which I would like to do properly.
It occurred to me that it would be great to use origami to make nice envelopes, but the internet has lots of conflicting information about what envelopes are considered appropriate (even the name is disagreed on) . One of my Japanese origami books has a couple of envelopes in it. Google translate gives me part of the title as "Useful origami with paper around us", but it can't translate the very stylized main title that has "No 2" as part of it. It is also labelled as number 1896 in the larger series (Google says "Lady Boutique Series"). Some of the envelopes have lovely cranes formed on one side; others just have decorative shapes folded on the surface. I'm hoping this description jogs someone's memory as to what book I'm talking about!
I'm hoping the group here can point me to envelopes that will certainly be suitable, regardless of whether they are in my book or not. Since I will clearly need the guide/translation services we have arranged during our trip, a thoughtful tip/gift seems very appropriate!
Thank you in advance, Monica Jones
