Onion Scramble

In my 'hood, I have at least six supermarkets I can shop from. Wait, can I say that in Mandarin?

我可以买东西在六个超市.

Hmm, that's MAYBE "I can buy things at six supermarkets,"

Anyway, this morning I decided to go to the nearest supermarket, Marusho.

Just outside the entrance, there appeared to be some sort of Giant Onion Sale (the sale, not the size of the onions) as there were midderly (not quite middle-aged, not quite elderly) women of all shapes and sizes — though they were all wearing similarly designed and coloured puffy jackets — crouched over several bins, filling their shopping bags up with onions.

Lots and LOTS of onions.

I glanced over to see what was so special about the sale. I think one giant plastic shopping bag of onions was only 200 yen, which is about NZD3 maybe. It was quite funny to watch these women at work, sifting through their onions to get the best ones.

One lady had finished her purchase and had begun loading her three bags into the front and back baskets on her bicycle, when one onion made a break for freedom. It was rolling down the road when a young woman walking in the other direction saw it and picked it up. She seemed bemused at the onion, as she wasn't entirely sure where it had come from, then she looked up and saw the onion scramble. The lady packing her onions hadn't noticed the escapee until the lady that picked it up handed it back to her.

I wonder what everyone's going to do with all those onions. My first thought was, "Sambal!" but then I realised they don't do that here :(

FYI, if you click on the picture of the onion above, you will be treated to an image of an onion BIGGER THAN YOUR HEAD. Awesome.