In my last post I mentioned a word which means ‘to pretend one is not home when one really is.’ Here it is:

居留守
i rusu

It starts with 居. This is the kanji behind the famous 「いる」 which shows existence as in:

犬がいる。
inu ga iru.
There is a dog.

You may happily go about your existence never knowing 居 is the brains behind いる’s unquestionable success. Very rarely does it make its presence known. It is like the proverbial woman behind every successful man. Hidden, but we all know she is the better half.

And to continue my ramble:

留守 is less glamorous but still quite important. Without 留守 we wouldn’t have these words:

留守番 rusuban Staying home alone; taking care of things
留守番電話 rusuban denwa Answering machine

I guess that’s about it. Maybe 留守 isn’t so important.

Anyway the 番 here means to watch and protect the house while everyone else is gone. We see this also in 番犬 banken - a watch dog.

Now back to our practical use example. I’ll quote my earlier comment for background information:

This is especially useful for when the NHK ‘donation’ guy comes around. NHK is like the US’s PBS but people actually watch it and it has good, but often boring content. However, everyone with a TV is required to ‘donate.’

(居留守中バウトエルたち) irusu chuu bautoeru tachi The Boutwell’s pretending to be out.

バウトエルさんいますか？NHKの集金です。アンテナ見えますよ。テレビあるでしょう。
bautoeru san imasu ka? NHK no shuukin desu. antena miemasu yo. Terebi aru deshou.
Are the Boutwell’s in? I’m collecting NHK subscriptions fees. I see your antenna. Don’t you have a TV?

Of course we no longer have to fear the NHK man. We live in Florida.