All it takes is a little teamwork!

There’s a lot to like about SoraNews24 headquarters, what with its convenient location in Tokyo’s downtown Shinjuku neighborhood and festive seasonal toilet decorations. That said, there’s also a major drawback: it’s drafty.

This isn’t such a big issue during the spring and fall, since our extremely casual office dress code means no one bats an eye if you come to work in a sweatshirt or hoodie. Around this time of year is when it starts to be a problem, though, and recently our reporter Seiji Nakazawa (pictured above) has been feeling the chill as winter wraps its icy fingers around him.

Luckily for Seiji, no matter how chilly the weather gets, he can always count on warmhearted support from his colleagues. So his first stop in his quest to find a way to cope with the cold was the desk of our boss, SoraNews24 founder Yoshio.

Sure, the guy may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but Seiji can always count on him if he needs help with something. Really, it’s guys like Yoshio that people are talking about when they say that someone is such a nice guy that he’d give you the shirt off his back…

Ya know, that gives Seiji an idea…

▼ “Hey, Seiji, what can I do for y-“

And really, if our boss is willing to give his employees the shirt off his back, doesn’t it stand to reason that he’d be just as happy to give them the pants off his hips too?

▼ “Seiji, what are…why…”

▼ “Whyyyyyyyyyy?????”

With the gracious gift of a second set of clothes, Seiji could now layer his attire. This is one of the most effective ways of keeping warm, and exactly the kind of simple but effective plan that someone with Yoshio’s sharp management acumen would come up with.

▼ “Thanks, boss!”

Seiji was now feeling considerably warmer, but still not necessarily warm. This made sense, though. A good boss is like a good teacher, and rather than solve Seiji’s problem for him outright, he’d sagely pointed him in the direction of the solution to his problem, but it was up to Seiji himself to go the distance. So his next stop was the desk of fellow writer Ahiru Neko.

▼ “Yo, Seiji, what’s up?”

“Hey, Ahiru Neko,” Seiji began. “Sorry to bother you while you’re being so handsome, but…”

▼ “Whyyyyy??????”

▼ In keeping with his cool-guy status, Seiji noted that Ahiru Neko wears stylish black underwear.

“Ahhh, that’s better,” thought Seiji as he slipped on layer number three. But, professional wordsmith that he is, he was acutely aware that “better” and “best” are two different things. To truly put Yoshio’s the “shirt-off-your-back” philosophy to the test, he was going to need everyone’s clothes.

Well, everyone in the office’s clothes anyway. Not everyone in the world, since he didn’t know all of them, and so couldn’t expect that level of support from them.

But he knew he could count on the kindness of his coworkers, and so he made the rounds from one desk to another, collecting a new layer at each stop.

▼ Wearing the jacket of Mr. Sato is an honor ordinarily reserved only for kings, emperors, and other heads of state.

With seven other people in the office that day, Seiji ended up with eight sets of clothing, turning him into a sort of casualwear matryoshka nesting doll. Eventually his outfit’s legs got too thick for him to fit them inside another pair of pants, but he still made sure to collect everyone’s and use the extras like scarves or aprons.

▼ Because how sad and left out would someone feel if they didn’t get to give Seiji their pants?

And when it was all done…

…Seiji finally felt warm! As a matter of fact, he even started to break a sweat.

And just so you don’t get the idea that anyone was less than completely happy with this redistribution of clothing, Seiji didn’t hear a single complaint once his outfit was finished.

Nope, not a single complaint…just an awful lot of teeth chattering.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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