The Staff At Japanese Starbucks Won't Let Me Have Two Sandwiches

"Sorry for the wait. May I help you?"

"Yes. Could I have a tall hot latte, one ham and cheese sandwich and one Ceasar salad wrap?"

"A Ceasar salad wrap, here you are."

"Oh, sorry. And a ham and cheese sandwich?"

*puts away the wrap, gets the ham and cheese*

"Oh, and....the wrap...?"

*starts to put the ham and cheese back" 

"Sorry, sorry, the wrap...the wrap too?"

*falters*

"Ah, it's ok, it's ok. Don't worry about it."

I should point out that a Ceasar salad wrap at Starbucks is about four inches long and wouldn't fill up a baby. And that when I get lunch on a weekday, my work schedule means I won't have a proper dinner until at least half past ten, something which I share with the average Japanese office worker. Ordering two petite, irrationally priced sandwiches - and then taking them to a table and eating them in immediate succession - really isn't that weird. I saw a businessman in Toyota eat three Big Macs once, and I bet he had a McFlurry as well. But this hasn't only happened to me once. I tried to order two sandwiches at Starbucks again today, and it took a good few attempts before the suspicious barista let me. And this is a barista I see every week before my Sunday shift, so if we didn't have that relationship of trust I don't know if she'd have been willing to take that journey with me. The decision to buy two sandwiches just seems to cause a short-circuit somewhere.

Fast food places are the same - try and order two portions of fries, even if there's clearly another person standing with you, and often you just won't get them. And I know it's not my Japanese, because I've been here eleven months. I learned the words for "root canal treatment" and "hangnail" so I think I can cope with "hambaagaa, mediamu saizu" (actual Japanese there, not just me doing a racist comedy accent). I even put effort into using grammar constructions that emphasise that I want two things and not one. I guess most people here just aren't as gluttonous as me, or think I can't be trusted to make my own decisions (which is probably fair).

One of these days I'm going to order three and see if anyone shits. I'll keep you posted.