most of you out there who have been reading about my wanderings thus far are familiar with tanaka-san by now. the sweet little office lady who thinks i am a super-model, clever american girl. yes, she always has me smiling and keeps me guessing as to what she might say or do in one day's time. today we shared a nice little laugh (at my expense...what's new!?) and i thought that i would pass it on.
i walked into the office to order lunch. (i have mentioned about how sweet it is to get little bento lunches delievered everyday to the office made by local chef's including all of the best local fish and produce and costing a mere 600 yen, right? well if i havent then i should start telling you all about them in another post.) she asked as usual first about my outfit. (where is it from, what am i wearing underneath, how much did it cost...) i relayed that it was from america and that i was wearing a camisole of sorts underneath and that i bought it on sale (of course). she nodded and smiled at all the above and oohed and ahhhed at it coming all the way from san francisco! oh la la! we then moved onto what i would be having for lunch. a big question some days when i just cant decide between chahan, saba ben, omu rice, or a nice udon seto. i decided on omu rice ( a sweet little modern japanese dish) and turned to head out the door. but in traditional japanese style i didnt get out without a question about the tempurature for the day. samui? (it is cold. am i cold? its cold isnt it?) they ask this incesently and repeat this word as if it will somehow make the weather change if they say it enough times with enough distain. so far i dont think that it is working, but that is not stopping them. they do the same thing in the summer when it is hot (atsui! atsui! atsui!...). anyhow she asked and i told her (for the millionth time or so it seems) that i indeed am not cold and that the winter here in naru is simply lovely, in fact it is the warmest winter i have ever experienced in my whole life. i did add today though that my hands were cold and that my nose was a bit cold as well. (nothing new if you know me or my mom. we share a wonderful little circulatory system that does not quite make it to the tips of our noses, toes or fingers, hence making them cold all the time.) well, i should have known better. she whipped out the dictonary to try and figure out what circulation means and the like and i continued to try and let her know that i was not uncomfortable or suffering in any way by the 'cold' (weather here is in the fifties and sunny this week). we finally arrived at the right translation and after she grasped what my situation was she ran with it. my nose became a mountain in her joke (because my nose is indeed quite a bit bigger and longer than the average japanese nose) and the tip of it was freezing because that is what happens when mountains are so big, they get snow on the tops of them! my nose was the mountain with the snow and it was all making sense to her now. i endured her sharing this joke with the rest of the office staff and a few of my fellow teachers as they came in to order lunch as well. i will admit that it made me laugh, but for entirely different reasons. you just never know what is going to happen next.
on to bigger things. jr high class this afternoon and tackling questions and vocabulary for year end wrap up lessons. oh joy!
love from my mountain to yours
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