When we were living in Japan, my wife was telling me about a sandwich shop run by foreigners a few blocks from her high-rise office in the Tameike-Sanno area of Central Tokyo. Since I had Japanese class on Fridays, I usually eat a light dinner since it is late at night. My wife was interested in what kind of sandwiches they have to offer and since they either deliver or you have to carry out, my wife used me as the ginny pig in case their food wasn't up to par. So, Friday before her lunch break, she gave the sandwich shop a call to place my order for a pick-up. After ringing the place up, my wife was greeted with a hearty "HELLO!" My wife continued speaking in Japanese (it may be gaijin-friendly Central Tokyo but it is still Japan) but the guy on the other end interrupts with a second "HELLO!". My wife switched to English and placed the order. Later she stopped by to pick-up the order and immediately felt like she is in a foreign country. All of the workers were foreigners. She did notice one Asian who didn't use any Japanese.
Upon my return from Japanese class around 9:15, my wife had dinner waiting for me and then tells me of her experience. At first I thought that it was a bit rude for these group of expats to operate in Japan using only English. After all, I`ll never forget the time when I was helping my friend move in San Diego and before the rental van was ready, we stopped by the nearby Burger King for some breakfast. We placed the order at the drive-thru window and the girl who took our order spoke English with such a thick Spanish accent that we had to park the car and go inside. The girl kept asking us if we wanted juice after we told her clearly that we didn`t. Also, when I was up in Los Angeles and was a handling agent at the LAX airport, I would get frustrated when passengers passing by and would attempt to converse with me in Spanish. They acted like since it was Los Angeles that I was expected to speak Spanish and when it became clear that I didn't, they left with a chip on their shoulder. I'll never forget a couple flying from Miami and transferring in LA to catch their flight to Australia. They guy walked up and is spoke loud and slow (a dumb habit that Americans make when talking to foreigners). Once the guy realized that I was a native English speaker, he exclaimed, "Wow! Somebody in this airline industry can speak English!" He went on and on about the horrible experience he had checking in at Miami.
But to the contrary, my wife said that the environment made for their food to be even more authentic. Granted, the place was near the American Embassy and made daily deliveries to the Australian Embassy and so forth. Also, my wife isn`t your typical Japanese woman with eight years of studying, working and living in the US.
In closing, I summed up the conversation by getting a better assessment of the place by asking my wife about her mother since her mom lives in Tokyo and appreciates foreign cuisine due to her time spent with us in California and even in my home state of South Carolina, "Would your mother feel uncomfortable if she walked in to place an order?" She replied, "She would'nt be able to place an order with the staff unless she pointed to the menu and indicated by a show of fingers how many she wanted."
Isn't that how I got my order in at McDonalds back in 2004 when I first went to Ikebukuro?
By the way, the wrap that I ordered was delicious. My only suggestion would be, if you are going to behave like this is not Japan, could you make your portions non-Japanese sizes? I ended up having to scrounge around for some leftovers after inhaling the ordered food.
The Divine Wind Vault
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