This is one of those practical but less than sexy words: 区役所 (city hall). The ku part I guess indicates that you're in one of Tokyo's 23 wards. These pictures are of Toshima-ku's city hall. If you look at the second picture, of the city hall sign, the first two kanj are Toshima, the last three kuyakusho. City hall is where you get/renew your ID card, where you can register for health insurance, and where you can get information on a host of other things, e.g. where to go for community center Japanese classes (they might not actually have the information on hand but can tell you where to go/call), or where to find pretty much anything in your ward. Tokyo city halls should have English speakers available to help you at least some days out of the week.
For beginner to perhaps intermediate-level students, Japanese words, phrases, and expressions, as learned by an American living in Tokyo. . Some of it I absorbed from my surroundings--slang, abbreviated terms, or new katakana-ized words that have recently entered the Japanese language. Some words are straight-up conventional vocabulary that I've found helpful to know, either in the classroom (where I taught English) or in everyday life, and some words just make me smile.
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おつかれやま!!! (In romaji, "Otsukareyama!!!" In kanji, お疲れ山?)
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