I popped into my local, sticky-chaired okonomiyaki joint for lunch today. The tiny, wiry mama-san looks about 60, but I'm guessing she's probably 97 -- Japanese genes and all. She's got a killer perm (my grandma would be jealous), and was smoking away on a fag when I came in. She speaks nice and slowly in Old People voice and I can understand most of what she's saying.
As she's tossing together my yakiudon (mixed, small size, but it's actually HUGE), she says to me in Japanese:
"My goodness, aren't you a beauty.." (and yes, it makes me cringe to have to translate that)
So we got chatting, and I decided to come out to her:
"Actually, I'm from New Zealand."
And, to my amazement and sheer exhiliration, she never said ONCE, "Gosh, but you look so Japanese..". We just chatted about random stuff, and she talked about the foreigners that have visited her little dingy little place (it's the ONLY eatery in my 'hood, and only open from about 11-2PM every day).
Random meetings of cool peoples like this is what keeps me in Osaka.
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I'm very grateful to our parents for their genes. At my job interview in Singapore one of the married women showing me around asked the perennial question, "So, have you got a girlfriend?"
What is WITH this question?? Is it an Asian culture thing? Did you tell her to go to hell?
Don't you love places like that? We have a place we go whenever we're in Nara for お好み焼き. You wouldn't recommend it for the layout/scenery/service/cleanliness, but you sure do for the flavour :)
Ooh, where's that お好み焼き place? Guess perhaps its surroundings give no meaning to the word "yaki", eh? :p
What I should have said to her, which is what I said to the taxi driver who asked me the same question, is, "Oh, I haven't dated girls in a verrrrry lonnnng time."
He didn't get it. But then again, he did reveal that Sg was a great place to get married because Asian women are demure and obedient.
Mmmm, Seigo can't remember the name either, but it was in the arcade right near the 近鉄出口 of 奈良駅. I know this ain't gonna help though :( Sorry...
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