moshi moshiもしもし
In 1890, Japan strung up its first telephone line between Tokyo and Yokohama. Twenty years into the Meiji Restoration, the country was importing Western technology as fast as it could unwrap it. Telephones arrived. Nobody knew what to say into them. The first attempt was "oi oi" — basically "hey, hey." Wealthy businessmen barking at operators. It went about as well as you'd expect.