Not Bret's Picture, http://ink361.com/natora
And a pic of my friend Wakana's hamster eating a kiwi for good measure
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Gelato by the Train Station
This gelato place has been here forever and it was never open when we were in the mood for ice cream (we always want to eat ice cream on Wednesdays?) but we finally went last Sunday and it was open.
The station is fairly busy, and the gelato place is listed in lots of local magazines and many people have recommended it, so it was pretty busy.
As soon as we walked in, I had about 6 children (7-12 year olds) staring at me with their mouths open, eyes wide, unblinking, not even looking away occasionally, just flat out staring. Oh and their moms were doing the same thing. Lovely. The shop was really small and cramped, and being 3 feet away from a gaggle of people doing this is highly uncomfortable. I can handle being stared at on the train, or walking by some people (though this rarely happens in Saijo, people are usually SO not like this), but this was really really unpleasant. Boo hoo, first world problems, yes yes yes. I still don't like it and it's really rude. People craning their necks to hear "the foreigner" talk while you're ordering ice cream kind of takes the fun out of things. Needless to say we ate outside.
This was literally 1 day after we were in a bento shop and some random middle aged man looked at me and Bret like we were aliens (we are, but at least we're registered!) and proceeded to talk to the shopworker about us right in front of us, complete with mimicking us in wonder every time we said anything in Japanese. This is only motivating me to study Japanese more, so when I do come across people with poor manners, I can at least make a quip at them and hopefully shame them into refraining from this behavior in the future.
Again, people usually aren't like this, which makes individuals with poor manners stand out all the more.
The station is fairly busy, and the gelato place is listed in lots of local magazines and many people have recommended it, so it was pretty busy.
As soon as we walked in, I had about 6 children (7-12 year olds) staring at me with their mouths open, eyes wide, unblinking, not even looking away occasionally, just flat out staring. Oh and their moms were doing the same thing. Lovely. The shop was really small and cramped, and being 3 feet away from a gaggle of people doing this is highly uncomfortable. I can handle being stared at on the train, or walking by some people (though this rarely happens in Saijo, people are usually SO not like this), but this was really really unpleasant. Boo hoo, first world problems, yes yes yes. I still don't like it and it's really rude. People craning their necks to hear "the foreigner" talk while you're ordering ice cream kind of takes the fun out of things. Needless to say we ate outside.
This was literally 1 day after we were in a bento shop and some random middle aged man looked at me and Bret like we were aliens (we are, but at least we're registered!) and proceeded to talk to the shopworker about us right in front of us, complete with mimicking us in wonder every time we said anything in Japanese. This is only motivating me to study Japanese more, so when I do come across people with poor manners, I can at least make a quip at them and hopefully shame them into refraining from this behavior in the future.
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