If you want it, take it (but use your best discretion)

I’m not sure what the laws are in Japan around poster removal, but I suspect I may have broken them. A few coworkers and I were *extending* a Google work dinner in Tokyo and started playing a Korean drinking game called Baskin Robins 31.  The rules at the beginning were vague – the Korean girl made them up as the game progressed – but it’s arguably the best drinking game I’ve ever played.  On the way out of the restaurant, I noticed a poster advertisement on the wall that would have looked great next to my poster of a Japanese pin-up girl smoking a cigarette. I had “Baskin Robbins” courage and stealth, so I decided to peel it from the wall, roll it up nicely, and walk out of the bar saying “goodbye” to the waiters on the way out.  Now it hangs in the Asian corner of my hallway that’s dedicated to my first roommate, Jenny Sookyung Choi.

Tip: You can crease or rip a poster, but once it’s backed with styrofoam, it looks brand new. See my post on posters.