Snack?

Wow! My week has just peaked. Now that I've been here a year, I find myself surprised less and less as we settle into Japanese life. However, my assistant superintendent (who speaks about ten words of English) just fixed that. As his meeting ended, he walked to my desk with a dish he had been snacking off of. The women he was meeting with had brought it to him. From a distance, I could see something longish and red. I peered at the plate and assumed it was some kind of dry chili pepper as he gestured towards me as an offer to sample the snacks. I've become accustomed to all manner of dried fish snacks, but I was completely unprepared for what I suddenly realized was not fish at all, but candied grasshoppers. He laughed when he saw my undisguised horror; I couldn't help myself. I didn't even have to spit out any of my meager Japanese vocabulary for him to understand that I was declining his kind offer to share.

"It's good," he said in Japanese.
I waved my hand in front of my face, using the Japanese gesture for no thank you (though in my case I suppose it meant, "no way!").
"Amai?" I asked, wondering if they were sweet.
He smiled. "Hai," he said affirmatively and assured me again that they were good, but I just waved my hand again a bit frantically and we both laughed.

I think I've lost my appetite.