the other day i was getting oden at 7-11 (don't judge me!), when the guy behind the counter asked me if i was ok with daikon. i found this question so incredibly strange that i just looked at him. o.O am i ok with daikon? what is that supposed to mean? he went on, almost rambling about how daikon is kinda... (kinda what?), it's different, it's...daikon. no shit, sherlock. if i didn't want to eat it, i wouldn't buy it! but daikon....unless it's raw, it's rather nice. *especially* when it has been simmered in broth of some kind. i was really confused by his stupid question.

later that day, a woman asked me another asinine question, but i cannot remember it now. the daikon question was rather spectacular in its absurdity, so i definitely remembered it! if i remember what this random woman said, i'll write again. or, oh! did i tell you about the old guy at the pool who asked me if tommy was my grandchild? again, just a look o.O i was really blown away! i *think* he mistook me for another foreign wife who lived here (sadly she passed away last winter) and just assumed the pale, fat foreign lady was the same person whom he had seen before. besides, with a swim cap, who can tell the difference? an old lady standing next to him (it's difficult to explain the dimensions of the pool, but there's a kind of 'foyer' on one side of the pool where two staircases lead down into it...you can kinda stand there and get your stretch on and not be in the way of the pool-walking people.) anyway, the lady next to him saw my face and looked at him, then me and said, 'that's your child, right? her kid, old man.' some people have no filter!

but yesterday, i went to the tea morning the mothers from tommy's class had at the yochien. i haven't been to but one of these, for hiro's class maybe in the beginning of his final year. those moms were really cool, but the moms from tommy's class....well, maybe because it's a first year class they are all kinda try to find their footing but seriously, i was so bored. everyone is nice, but there were definite groups of friends and i really wasn't into breaking into any of them. my neighbor's daughter is in tommy's class, so we chatted a bit, but all in all, it was a 'not fun' experience. as for the stupid question, one of the moms in the class, someone i have never spoken to before, asked me where i was from (nationality) and then if i moved to japan because of marriage. i think that's what she said. i really couldn't understand a lot of anything that she said yesterday. i don't know if it's because my brain shut off her stupid questions, or if she spoke in a dialect i wasn't familiar with, but i was annoyed by her question. what kind of question is that, anyway? i get that she was trying to start a conversation with me, but is marriage the only reason to live in a foreign country? yes, i am married and have kids, but there's more to me than just that. i dunno, it was annoying, not lest of which in its sexism. there, i said it!

there's another coffee/tea morning for the moms in sasha's class, but it's during my friday japanese class and i really can't see any reason why i should skip it!