Well, I tried to adapt to a role as a Japanese wife and in doing so had alot of hilarious moments..blonde jokes weren't in then but they would of have a field day with me then.
Tom went to work during the week and I stayed home cleaning, cooking and making our little nest comfortable. Well, one day, the door bell rings I answer the door and there's this little old Japanese man selling brushes & brooms...but not your typical Fuller Brush man. He had brooms the like of which I had never seen, they were freshly made of some kind of hay/straw handtied.
He spoke no English and I, at that point, no Japanese...so it was hand signals and drawing in the air for communication. The end result was I wound up buying a broom and paying maybe $8.00 for it.
Tom came home that night and I proudly showed him "my broom".... I told him about the little old man, how much I paid for it and he started to laugh. It turns out that the broom was only worth maybe $l.00 - I had definitely made the old man's day.
The lot that our house was built on held 3 other similiar homes...so we had become friendly with our neighbors. Evidently, the little old man had gone from our house to each of the neighbors homes....telling them about the crazy gaijin that had just overpaid him.
It took a while to live that down.....but I did have to laugh.
Not one to give up easily, one day I was sitting in the livingroom and I heard a bell...it had a special sound to it...it became in my mind an icecream truck bell. I went running outside to the street looking for a Good Humor truck...instead I found a man totally dressed white, white cap pushing a white rolling cart that looked like a portable refrigeration unit.....(get this picture in your head) blonde foreign girl comes flying into street asking "IceCream? IceCream?" This poor man actually backed up from me...shaking his head back & forth going..."Icecreamu?" "Icecreamu?".... He reached over and opened the one side of the container and as I looked in I could see white blocks sitting at the bottom which was filled with water...then I realized - He was the TOFU man.
Of course I didn't escape without my neighbors witnessing my latest faux pas....they were pulling straws to see who would tell "Tom" first about my latest exploit. Looking back I just have to laugh.
PS: I'll have to continue about the flying taxi tommorrow.
6 comments:
I dunno if the Japan had this but in Taiwan, there's a tofu dessert with peanuts in sugar water that is very good especially in the summer!
Hi,
This is a funny story. Thanks for sharing. I read the entry about your mother-in-law and the one at the restaurant with your Dad. I really like your journal, it's interesting to hear all these stories. I'll be back to visit you. :)
Sharon
http://journals.aol.com/spurgins311/LovingIt
You're off to a great start! Can't wait to read more:)
LOL...that was hilarious. The funny things that happen because of culture or languages differences =)
Bethany
Thanks for everybody's kind comments....I wanted to do a "fun" journal and will keep digging into my memory banks for more "I just had to laugh" stuff. Thanks again, Sandi
interesting take on learning the ropes there!
natalie
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