The Okinawin and the Russian Prostitute

My friend N is visiting me now. We are having a really great time, and I am so happy she came. I am not sure, how happy she is that she came to the inaka (the super-rural area, aka where I live) as she is getting so much attention about her height. She literally towers over most of the people that we meet...which i think is great (it's easier to find her in a crowd!!;) People keep whispering to me (in loud stage whispers no less..."that girl is so tall...so tall!!!") Nobody seems to be able to fathom that there are people out there over 5'9" (I think she might be about 5'11)...

Anyhow, the 2 of us where at Saty (which is a department store/grocery store) the other day...and the store people were offering food samples. So I needed to do some shopping, and somewhere between picking up icecream and shrimp, I admit, I indulged in a few soda and pizza samples. Then after checking out, N and I were talking about how tasty the pizza samples were, and how neither of us had even thought about Lunch yet (it was after 3 pm) we thought it might be a good idea to do a bit more wandering around the store and check out the other samples....Man, I felt like I was a little kid again, because when I was little I LOVED trying all the samples at my local SuperValu....Okay, so the first sample we saw was for gyoza (chinese dumplings) and the lady was holding a try, filled with them. So I saunter over to her getting ready to get my tasty treat...and she walks away from me!!! What!? okay, maybe she didn't see me....So, N and I walk up to her stand and I say, "Hai, I'd like one." and she (cranky old lady!!) looks from me to N and says..."NO, NO, NO!!!!" Then turns her back on us and walks over to another customer and offers them a sample....Oh my god...by now, I am used to this....I swear anyone in this area who looks at me and sees my partial okinawin-ness...or maybe my gaijin-ness (foreigner) tends to act like this to me....but to my friend? What??? So I look over at the lady who is offering samples of Pocari Sweat (ew!!!) and she has a look of horror on her face...like what is wrong with the crotchety old sample lady? So she motions for us to come to her. Seriously, if she hadn't done that...I may have called the mean lady "stupid"...as that is the only insult (well, besides "you have a small penis"...) that I know.

When I was telling my friends about this later that night...my friend H explained that N looks russian (which she is) and that the lady probably mistook her for one of the Russian girls that works at the hostess bars....Man oh man, even my friends can't catch a break in the inaka.