Culturally Confused
Today I spontaneously went into the little Japanese restaurant/takeout downtown, looking for dinner.
Before I went in I was wondering if I'd get a chance to use my Japanese, and feeling a bit conflicted about whether I should try.
I walked through the door, and it was so Japanese inside, so like all the little hole-in-the-wall makeshift places I ate in over there, right down to the little old Mrs. Restaurant sitting at a table...clearly a mom & pop operation, him behind the counter and her doing the accounts...
...they looked at me with their Japanese faces, expression, Japanese body language, and before I could even think about it, I was like, "はい、カツ丼ください!"*
It would have been an effort to speak English.
The food was classic Japanese greasy-spoon style stuff, which only heightened my sense of warm nostalgia. Ah, bad oily cooking! How it takes me back... I was seriously concentrating while I was eating, because if I tried hard enough I could just manage to imagine I would walk out that door and be back in Toyooka, in my old life, not here.
I don't know how often I'll go back - really: greasy spoon. But their sushi is 20% off on Mondays, I think I'll give that a try. It's hard to make unhealthy sushi.
Lord knows what Mr. and Mrs. made of me.
(* "Yeah, I'll have a pork cutlet on rice.")
Before I went in I was wondering if I'd get a chance to use my Japanese, and feeling a bit conflicted about whether I should try.
I walked through the door, and it was so Japanese inside, so like all the little hole-in-the-wall makeshift places I ate in over there, right down to the little old Mrs. Restaurant sitting at a table...clearly a mom & pop operation, him behind the counter and her doing the accounts...
...they looked at me with their Japanese faces, expression, Japanese body language, and before I could even think about it, I was like, "はい、カツ丼ください!"*
It would have been an effort to speak English.
The food was classic Japanese greasy-spoon style stuff, which only heightened my sense of warm nostalgia. Ah, bad oily cooking! How it takes me back... I was seriously concentrating while I was eating, because if I tried hard enough I could just manage to imagine I would walk out that door and be back in Toyooka, in my old life, not here.
I don't know how often I'll go back - really: greasy spoon. But their sushi is 20% off on Mondays, I think I'll give that a try. It's hard to make unhealthy sushi.
Lord knows what Mr. and Mrs. made of me.
(* "Yeah, I'll have a pork cutlet on rice.")