Not So Different, You And I
Restaurant | Right | April 19, 2012
(I’m a waiter in a very authentic, very small Japanese restaurant. I’m filling drinks at a table of four people in their mid-twenties—two guys and two girls.)

Customer: “Um, yeah… so, I have a question.”

Me: “Sure. What would you like to know?”

Customer: “Yeah…so, like… um… Japanese… uh… Asians… do Asian people like dessert?”

Me: “Well, of course they enjoy dessert. Doesn’t everyone?”

Customer: “So, like…what do they eat, then?”

Me: “Sweet things. Cake, ice cream, candy, and all kinds of sweets.”

Customer: “Oh. So just like us?”

Me: “Yes… just like us.”

(She stares at me, unable to understand why I’m grinning in disbelief. No words are exchanged, so I walk away. As I’m walking, I hear her friend say, “Wow, he hates you.” At the end of her meal she asks for a fortune cookie.)