Uri-ba

Uri-ba is a native Japanese word, from uru 'to sell' and -ba 'a place'. It refers to a sales counter or sales window.

Based on the derivation, uri-ba could be written or . In public signs appears to be a preferred form, based admittedly on a rather small and biased sample (most are from Odakyu Department Store at Shinjuku):

Keirinjō-gai shaken uriba Rapisuta Shinbashi (kaiin-sei) Off-course cycling tickets sales counter La Pista Shinbashi (Members)

Kippu uriba Ticket window

In some cases, uriba can be found in hiragana, as in the example below:

Kippu uriba Teikiken, Tokkyuuken, Kaisuuken, Kuuponken Ticket window Commuter tickets, Express train tickets, Multiple tickets, Coupons

A Google search in August 2003 revealed the following distribution for uri-ba on the Internet, with figures for the similar construction nori-ba (see noriba) shown at right:

Form	No. of occurrences	Form	No. of occurrences
	160,000		99,000
	101,000		15,100
	710		43,200
	97		141
katakana	92	katakana	37
	53		293

Compared to nori-ba, uri-ba shows a much higher proportion of kanji only (), and a much lower proportion of hiragana only ().