Encounters with old ladies at the deli and Patriotic Mushroom Hat Bowl Cat

I'm sorry there were no updates for April! In Japan, school (and everything else) starts in April, and I may have remembered when it did that I have to submit a master's thesis by November this year. I also started a new part-time job at an international patent office. Translating patents is neither fun nor particularly rewarding, but it does pay rather well.  I've also kept up making bento for Hide every single day (bar weekends and holidays, when we go for decadent ramen or something) for the past two months. I now have quite a library of artful lunchbox photographs which I bet you're just dying to see.

But instead, here's a picture of when my friend Chipii and I went to a cat cafe in Shimokitazawa the other week.

It's a cat in a bowl. With a football/mushroom hat. With a Japanese flag on the hat.

However, I believe cats are happiest when not adorned with random pieces of crap, so I made the executive decision to remove the ridiculous hat once Bowl Cat had given us the photo op. It neither awoke nor moved the entire time we were there (close to an hour).

Truly, that day no fucks were given by Bowl Cat.

I got back from uni really late this evening and went to to supermarket in order to pick up some stuff for said lunches, since Golden Week (the consecutive public holidays we had last week) depleted our fridge, at the cunning ninja time of after 9pm, which is when they start reducing stuff at the deli counter by 30%-50%.

I was debating over two types of fried chicken when a tiny old lady poked my arm, as old ladies of pretty much any race are wont to do.

Her: 'Is everything reduced yet?'
Me: 'Yes, it is.'
Her: 'Where does it say that?'
Me: 'On this sign here.' [points to large red sign saying 'Everything here half price!')
Her: [looks at me for first time, does a massive double take] 'Oh! I asked a foreigner!' (she said gaijin no kata, which is like a bizarre combination of the non-polite word for foreigner and the super-polite word for referring to a person)
Me: [laughs] 'It's fine.'
Her: 'You speak such good Japanese, how long have you been here?'
Me: 'About four years altogether.'
Her: 'And you're so fluent in only that time!' [to herself] 'I asked a foreigner... I must be going senile.'