Born yesterday?

It is so funny how so many people here are so quick to assume that I don't know what I am doing at all.

Take, for example, last weekend at the coin laundry.

It was a particularly busy day and, unfortunately, I brought a blanket and some sheets to wash as well as my usual clothes. All of the high capacity washers were being used. So, I was standing there, wondering what to do when I realized after looking at some charts that I my blanket and sheets could probably be put in the smallest machine and be just fine.

I stood there pondering whether I could be right. I don't really know kilograms well enough to know just from a number. (To be honest, I don't know pounds well enough, either. :) )

So a guy walked into the laundry place and I simply asked him if he thought that my blanket and sheets would be too heavy or not. He thought it would be ok.

But then after that he proceeded to try to show me how to use the machine.

This machine, being the same as the ones I've been using every weekend except just a little smaller.

And also being remarkably similar to machines in my home country.

(haha)

Really, though, I get things like that a lot.

It's always a little annoying at first, but it's not so bad when you think of the real reason why it's happening. What it comes down to is that the person doesn't think that foreigners are stupid, they actually just don't know enough about foreign countries. They know that a lot of things are different, but as far as they know, washing machines in the US are completely different from those in Japan.

So really, no wonder some people seem very surprised that I can function here at all.