Job Discussion Forums

Shonai Ben · Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Posts: 617

For those of you who don't know:I am not a newbie,but I was remembering today a very stupid experience that happened to me when I first came to Japan.As stupid as this seems it is a true story.
I was in Japan for only a few days and I was craving a peanut butter sandwich.I was living in a small city and I could not find peanut butter in any of the grocery stores.Finally I came upon something that looked like peanut butter but I was unsure.Throwing caution to the wind I decided to buy this stuff and try it.
I went back home and opened this stuff and took a smell.No smell.I took a tiny taste.Hmmm.Very salty and not really like peanut butter.What the hell,I made a sandwich anyway,because I really wanted that peanut butter sandwich.
I bit into my sandwich and yuck,I quickly spit it out.What the hell is this stuff?It's sure as hell not peanut butter.I threw my sandwich and the rest of the stuff into the garbage.
Now you are not going to believe this,but I later found out that I had bought miso,thinking it was some kind of special Japanese peanut butter.
I still laugh when I think about this but how could I have been so stupid?
I was a newbie.
Anyone else with a stupid newbie story?

april · Joined: 07 May 2003 Posts: 83 Location: Australia

God I did *heaps* of dumb things! But I'm gonna relay one my flatmate did (heh heh). She used an entire container of floor cleaner - as clothes washing detergent!! But the really funny part was the she had lived in Japan for 3 years...wtf??? I didn't like her at all, so I stood back and sniggered.

The only ones I can think of now are the usual - biting into chicken knuckles at a restaurant thinking it was actually meat of some kind; hoeing into (and enjoying) a packet of chips and then realising it is mayonaise flavoured (spew!); buying what I think is a cute hair ornament, only to go to work the next day, and during the last lesson and have a student ask me why I have ear pickers in my hair! Okay, so that last one isn't quite a common newbie mistake!!

markosonlines · Joined: 22 May 2003 Posts: 49 Location: Ise

Here goes,

My first esl job, South Korea. I'm picked up at Kimpo airport, Seoul, and taken to the bus terminal for the trip to Sokcho by. I am told that, when I arrive in Sokcho, my boss Mrs Kim will pick me up and take me to my apartment etc. etc.

Anyway, four hours later, I arrive in Sokcho and get off the bus. I get my luggage and all the other passengers clear off leaving just me and an old lady. It's about 11pm so I go up to the old lady and say (in English, can't speak Korean yet) 'are you Mrs Kim?' She says something, hoists my 35kg suitcase on her barely 5ft frame and starts walking down the road with my gear. I follow, ten minutes later I'm being shown an apartment, of sorts, and wondering just how I'm going to manage without the kitchen said to be included.

I'm having a shower and there's a knock on the door. I open the door, wearing but a towel (Australian beach towel, not Korean hankerchief towel) and my boss, her 3 year old daughter, and a teacher proceed to inform me how I unwittingly managed to take a 'minbak', or guesthouse, from a Mrs Kim (I found out later half of Korea carries the surname Kim) at the bus terminal. My bus had arrived about ten minutes early. I had to pay the poor old lady ten bucks for pointlessly carrying my luggage up the road and generally made myself out to be an idiot in front of my new boss on our first meeting. Happy to say things worked out well in the following sixteen months I was there but boy what a newbie I was.

As Das Fads · Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Posts: 44

In point form, all relating to food'

- Craving mashed potato, and being a scumbag, I bought a one litre carton of creamy milk that was 50% off. Only after sitting down to my big plate of mash did I realise it was drinking yoghurt, not milk. I could've read the katakana if I had bothered, but the 50% off sticker blinded me

- Craving banana icecrean, I bought a big box of banana icecreams, only to discover they were grapefruit flavoured. Damn the big monkey guy on the box

- Being told by my Japanese colleagues at at Bonenkai to eat this wonderful Japanese macaroni...only to find out later it was pig fallopian tubes.

Stupid, or gullible? You be the judge...

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

My own food experience:

On a recent road trip, I noticed a vending machine that sold french fries. Me being very new here, things like that are quite a novelty, so I had to have some. Oooops--sold out. Well, why don't I try those nice boiled-potato-looking things? So I order some, wait a few minutes, and take them eagerly back to the car, only to discover... OCTOPUS?!?!?!? (And me a vegan!) Thankfully, I had a friend to taste them for me, but damn, I was sooooo looking forward to those potatoes.

d

TokyoLiz · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1548 Location: Tokyo, Japan

I was looking for a community hall, or kouminkan, where I could find a yoga class. I noted down the kanji for the neighbourhood, checked the map and biked down to the neighbourhood. There were a few institutional-looking buildings, one clearly marked post office, another two with the word 'kan' in big kanji, though I couldn't make out what the first few kanji on each building said. I walked into one that looked likely, stepped up to the annaijo, or information office, and explained as politely as I could in Japanese, that I was looking for a yoga class for my health. Well, the woman behind the counter asked me if I'd been to the hospital. 'Byoin? What the? Byoin!' Just then a guy in a suit and name tag come out of the office, I explained what I was after, and he gave me a big smile - I'd unwittingly walked into a medical clinic two doors down from the kouminkan! The clerk at the desk had no freakin' idea what yoga was - she thought it was some kind of health remedy. Well, not far off...

And I had no excuse, either, because I've been in Japan a year and a bit, and I read kanji. I guess I was tired or not paying attention or something...

rockwolf · Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 19 Location: Takamatsu, Shikoku

3 words.

Gutters Of Doom

guest of Japan · Joined: 28 Feb 2003 Posts: 1601 Location: Japan

Mine was making the mistake of not smelling the laundry detergent before pouring it onto my clothes.

Lynn · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 696 Location: in between

In my first month in Japan as an exchange student my "charinko" got a flat tire. I had remembered a phrase from my Japanese lessons, "hen" meaning something is wrong with my bike. I took it to the repair ojisan and used my phrase proudly. He smiled and understood me, and I was beaming wtih joy because I thought I was handling this situation very well.

He took a look at the bike and said,"punk desu ne". I was shocked that he would call me a punk just cuz I got a flat tire. "I am not a punk! I am an exchange student!" I said defensively. He looked at me strangely and shook his head, "dakara, punk desu ne". I was so insulted and said in my best Japanese, "Chigau yo! Punk ja nai! ryugakkusei desu!" I went on to explain what program I was with, where I lived and my whole life story. And after all this trouble he didn't even charge me to get my bike fixed. henna gaijin da ne.

gyunyu · Joined: 21 Jun 2003 Posts: 8

It's out first night in Japan after a long day of travel by plane and bus. We are met at the station and taken immediatly to the department store to purchase futons, which are a lot thinner than we expected.

On the lower level we pick up some basic groceries to get us by. My girlfreind is very thirsty and grabs a big bottle of water without looking at the price.

Back in the car she opens the bottle and takes a big slug of Cough! Hack! What is this stuff?

That's right: We unwitting bought our first jug of Shochu. I don't know how our headmaster was able to stifle his laughter. Instead we got a lecture on drinking too much liquor.