There was a concierge on the ground floor of my building in Cebu 🐧

This is about the ground floor of the condominium.

First, there's a big concierge desk, right there in the middle.

There was a receptionist and a security guard too, so there were always about 3 staff on the ground floor. One concierge, one guard, and one other staff member.

Whenever you go out, you have to pass through there, so you say hello to the concierge and the security person before you step outside.

That turned out to be a habit we don't really have back home.

A building with a concierge in Japan is, I think, probably very expensive.

Saying hello to someone every single day before going out. Looking back, I think that habit was really good for me.

Step out of the building and there was a park-like space right in front, and sometimes a football school was running there.

Watching the kids playing football was fun too.

Also, when you're on the ground floor, all sorts of people come through.

Sometimes I'd hear Japanese and realise, oh, there were Japanese people living in this building too.

In Cebu, my impression was that there were more Western people.

Before that I lived on Luzon, the island Manila is on, and there it was more people from China, Taiwan and Korea. I didn't hear much Japanese there.

Cebu felt like it had more Japanese people.

You can also get to the pool from the ground floor.

The Philippines doesn't have Amazon. You shop with apps called Lazada and Shopee, and the concierge receives the parcels for you.

For water, you didn't have to go out to a convenience store either. You could buy it for about 50 pesos a gallon.

Living with a concierge downstairs was, I kept thinking, really convenient.