Firefly in Japan

The other day, I went to the bank to transfer a small sum of money to make a purchase. I was standing in line for a while, and finally my turn came up. I went up to the machine, and began pressing buttons.

I soon realised that although my spoken Japanese is quite decent, my knowledge of Japanese banking kanji was sorely lacking. I recognised "Money Transfer", and I successfully picked this. However I was totally confused at the next set of complicated characters that assaulted my brain. To get some help and an explanation, I called over a small, friendly oji-san bank person.

These small, friendly oji-san bank people exist in every bank in Japan. They are most generally men, with a very broad smile and a very welcoming manner. As soon as this particular SFOBP noticed my helpless expression, he came dashing over to help my problem.

I explained in fairly fluent Japanese my problem, and he nodded understandably and set to help me with my problem. He took me through each step of the way asking questions in clear Japanese.

"Do you have the bank details of the remote acount?"
"Can confirm again all of these details are correct?"
"Do you foresee a situation where you would need to send money again to this address?"
"Would you like to create a shortcut card that would make that process easier?"

The questions were coming thick and fast, but I was quite familar with this kind of Japanese, and with the subject matter so I was able to answer every question fluently and without issue.

Right at the end of the interaction, right when I was about to thank him, and he was about to bow and wish me well, he said something else to me.

"Araiba inu niwa".

I froze. My mind started to run through all the possible meanings of this sentence. I was also temporarily confused - how could I have understood all of the complicated above questions, but failed so badly on a simple wrap-up? Some possible options were starting to pop into my mind.

Arai means wash or clean - perhaps he's talking about cleaning something? The 'ba'? Perhaps he meant the potential form - "araeba", meaning - "if you wash". But that doesn't make much sense - why would he be talking about washing? Inu? That means dog. Is he talking about washing my dog? Washing his dog? Is he saying "Why don't you wash your dog?"

Given the circumstances, I quickly discounted that possibility, but I was still stumped as to the meaning. My mind started to go through possible meanings for "niwa". It could maybe mean garden, or garden? Is he suggesting I wash my chicken and dog in the garden? Why would a SFOBP begin to offer suggestions on washing my dog and chicken? In a garden? How did he know I had a garden? Or a dog and chicken?

None of this made sense, and I furrowed my eyebrows trying to make sense of his odd suggestion.

He helpfully repeated his sentence a little bit louder, which now sounded to me like "Hey, why don't you wash your dog? In your garden? huh?"

I stood like a deer in a spotlight unsure of the appropriate response to this kind of question in a Japanese cultural context.

He then decided on a different tact, and repeated the statement.... IN JAPANESE. "ichijikan inaide tsukimasu yo!" It will arrive in one hour. I never even considered the possibility that after 10 minutes of discussion in Japanese, after asking questions such as "Will there be a foreseeable situation where you might need to repeat this tranaction?", that he would suddenly switch to English, hence my brain fry.

I confirmed my understanding, nodded and thanked him for his time and help. Musing over the series of events that led to his miscommunication, and relieved that he wasn't offering hygenic advice about my chicken, I left the bank with a smile on my face.