20.10.04

Smelly Pancakes and Supermarket Music

Might I indulge in asking two rhetorical questions?

1) Why is something as delightful as pancakes so darn smelly to make? Not smelly in a dried-squid-snack kind of way (which is really a good malodorousness) but in a "fumigate the entire house with the stench of overheated grease" manner. Perhaps it is my cooking technique... Damn, am I incapable of even pancake-making?

2) Have I unknowingly been labeled persona non grata in supermarkets throughout Tokyo? Why does their selection of music seem to suggest a united, sinister ploy to either drive me crazy or discourage me from lingering more than, oh, one second in their well-stocked aisles? It's just that...surely the disco remake of Celine Dion's best hits can't be playing all the time, 10am-8pm, seven days a week? Wouldn't there be consequences? Like the mental disintegration of all the staff? The only conceivable (and humane, for supermarket workers) conclusion is that they have a special tape with my name on it, and when someone sees that girl approaching, they hastily stuff it into the tape deck, and I find myself gritting my teeth over the tubs of miso as Celine cockily yet agonizingly bellows "Baby think twa-ah-ah-ce!" and the little old lady beside me taps her feet in time with the madly plinking piano accompaniment.


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5 Comments:

Never heard of "OA" recordings before. But at this Cambodian restaurant in Vancouver that we used to eat at all the time when I was a kid, they would play non-stop Chinese remakes of English pop songs. And I really doubt permission was asked nicely before these recordings were made. Ever heard "Material Girl" performed in Cantonese? Very weird. No two ways about it.

10/21/2004 03:52:00 AM  

Speaking of supermarket music, here's a story.

When I walked into Peacock one day after work this summer on one of the hottest days in Tokyo history, I heard the crowing of cicadas (what word do you use for the sound the cicadas make?) And I thought, how innovative for a Japanese supermarket to bring summer inside the store. Two seconds later I realized there must be something wrong because the sound was so loud and annoying that I wanted to escape the store empty-handed.

When I finally collected all the items on my list and went to the check-out counter, I saw a boy (5 or 6 years old) holding a plastic bag full of cicadas. And everyone was too polite to say something to kick the kid (or his bagful of awful creatures) out of the store!

10/21/2004 11:23:00 AM  

What is it with Japanese kids and cicadas? They're like treasured pets. Well, if you want to be sympathetic, I guess you can see this as evidence of how little space there is in most Japanese homes. Thus instead of a kitty or puppy, most boys and girls in Tokyo have to channel their need to shower love and affection on something toward noisy, short-lived insects.

10/21/2004 05:12:00 PM  

Oops, regarding my previous comment, where I wrote "They're like treasured pets," I was referring to the cicadas, not the children. Although some pets in Japan are treated pretty good. 

Posted by Rachel

10/21/2004 06:53:00 PM  

Maybe they are treasured if well behaved. But can babies be trained? 

- Rachel

10/25/2004 11:45:00 PM  

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