Text 26650, 83 rader
Skriven 2009-07-27 20:23:28 av Carol Shenkenberger (653.cooks)
  Kommentar till text 26589 av NANCY BACKUS (1:261/1381)
Ärende: Re: hazards  was: dumb dr
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 > Now that you tell the story, I may have heard it before... but it's
 > still a good one. :)

I'm probably not the only perso this has happened to, just the only one here
I know of.

 >  CS> Now in Sasebo, you encounter all sorts of odd foods and never being
 >  CS> one to avoid 'something new' we tried live eels.
 >  CS> The ladies pull them out of the vat (live, swimming) and hit them on
 >  CS> the head to kill them then tuck them in your cart.  The carts used are
 >  CS> the small sort, a bit bigger than the airport carry on luggage with
 >  CS> wheels and you use them to shop for groceries as ost do so on foot from
 >  CS> house to store and back.  You pull them behind you.
 > 
 > Right.

Yup.  Live fish get stunned and eels and then there's them seasquirts they
dont bother to stun but seal on baggies so they dont spit all over your cart.

 >  CS> So here I am shopping along, I of course, with my cart behind me.
 >  CS> Then, a horrendous *WAIL-SCREAM' erupted behind me.  WFT?  I swing
 >  CS> about (shifting my cart behind me as is natural).  I swing about and
 >  CS> this gaijin (white lady) is staring at me and screaming?  WTF? I swing
 >  CS> about again thinking it's someone past me and she's still at it!
 > 
 > (glad to hear that it wasn't YOU that was the gaijin... somehow I
 > couldn't picture it of you... [g])

Oh the term is pretty generic for 'round eye' even in Sasebo but you got
'cool Gaijuns' and 'clueless gaijuns'.  I was the cool sort.  After all the
clueless ones don't exactly venture to buy live eels for dinner then laugh
their heads off when they see it is turning escape artist.

 >  CS> Japanese folks are laughing and falling out all over the place
 >  CS> pointing at us.  Huh?  I'm turning about and about to see what's so
 >  CS> funny and they just start laughing harder.
 >  CS> At this point a kind lady storekeep comes up and takes the eel which
 >  CS> had only been stunned and was crawling out of my cart, and whacks it
 >  CS> again.  It was of course, behind me out of view the whole time.  ;-)
 > 
 > Because you never left hold of the cart, so it swung about with you... I
 > see...  (G)

Dead on. I never laughed so hard as once i realized I was swinging some 20
inches of live eel out the back, just 'sorta hanging out in the breeze til he
could get away'.

 >  CS> I bet I've not told you about dickering in Korea for spices and
 >  CS> screaming like a banshee as a lady swung a dog leg at me either ;-)
 >  CS> It was a hot day.  I wanted that Korean spice (a chile dried sort I've
 >  CS> not found exported) so we set to bartering, her with no english, me
 >  CS> with no Korean.  It didnt matter as we knew what we were about! So on
 >  CS> we dickered, liuder and louder and having a ball and she starts to see
 >  CS> 'is this round eye ok?' and swings the dog leg at me hanging from the
 >  CS> stall. I'm batting it back at her fast as she can catch it and going
 >  CS> 'no, no dog, spice!  You bring the pricedown!  It's too high!'
 > 
 > Another good story.  :)  Did you learn any Korean afterwards...?

Umm, yes but not sure if it's repeatable ;-)  I not only got my spice at a
decent deal (markup accepted as we both knew i could afford more than roughly
50cents USA per cup).  I got it at 65cents per cup and tipped *well* which
preserved both our 'honors' in the deal.

I was to come back to her stall every year for 4 more years as our ship
arrived and she remembered me.  She'd grab the dog leg and swing it gently
and just grin then pull out the bag of spice I wanted most. Then, we'd
dicker....

 >  CS> My buddies are falling out laughing and many pictures get snapped but
 >  CS> none digital or I'd pass them on.  Got my spices though, for a decent
 >  CS> price for us both ;-)

Hehe the best part?  The fun we *both* had.

Life isnt meant to be wasted.  I'm glad I've not wasted the first almost 50
of it. I plan to have fun with the rest it offers.  Even if it's popping up
like a gopher out of my cubie, and going 'aha!  Got it' then waiting to see
who else pops up! (ohh man, I need a squirt gun bad).
               xxcarol
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