Door to Door Yogurt

One day we were visited by a milkman! Seeing as how we are American and didn't exist before the 1980s, we've never experienced milk dropped at our door before! And in glass bottles to boot! We were thrilled, and I hopped on the Meiji website to research our free samples (which was whole milk, skim, etc). We were surprised to learn that we didn't have any milk at all. Instead, all four samples were fortified yogurt drinks! They tasted like plain Greek yogurt, just really thin like water.

I was completely unaware (although I guess it should be obvious) that I would need to return the bottles. A week later, there was a knock at the door, and it was the Meiji man asking for his bottles. We still had 2 unopened, so I showed him the full bottles and expressed that we needed more time. He said no problem, he would return in three days. Although we did honestly need more time to drink the last two bottles, I was frazzled because I had thrown the other two away! I asked our Japanese friends what would happen - would I need to pay for the loss of the bottles, would the Meiji man yell at me, take my first born? I was assured that in fact nothing would happen as long as I left a note explaining what happened and apologizing. A friend of ours drafted a note in Japanese with an English translation, and I left it on our front steps with the two empty bottles. I checked later that day and it had disappeared and all seemed forgiven. Although I doubt he'll ever be back. Oh well.