I just watched an anime where two siblings live alone in an apartment. They went out and came back together, and even though clearly there wouldn’t be anyone at home, they still said ただいま. Is that commonplace? Do people say it even if they live alone?
8 comments
not really no.
[Here you go](https://youpouch.com/2015/04/23/263369/).
I think its mostly on a person to person basis.
I’d chalk it up to being a character quirk.
However, there may be people who do it irl.
Does saying that to your dog count?
My guess is it depends on how you were raised, personally if I was raised to say “I’m home” every single day when I lived with my parents, naturally I wouldn’t find it that strange to say to an empty house as it’s habit
And I think some people find it a but consoling to do this, like it makes the house livelier even when it’s not
Not Japanese, but I used to live in Spain, where it was common practice to shout an “hola” when you arrived home and a “ciao” when you left. (Yes ciao is Italian, but it was just the trendy thing to say?)
Based on my experiences there, it just became force of habit when you lived with other people. I’d often find myself saying it even when I pretty sure I was home alone mainly because idk, maybe someone actually is home and just pure habit.
So I’d imagine it’s a similar vibe for Japanese people
My Japanese wife does. So, I do also.