Samurai Soap Opera
This past week has been one of those times that I’ve been so busy that the running around has somewhat taken a life of its own.
I know, you’ve had those as well. Where, when you finally sit down to take a breath, you wonder if you’ll ever get back up again.
Yesterday, I needed a few minutes to myself. I just needed to take a deep breath, put the computer aside, a place of no distraction, no emails, no instant messaging, no news. Nothingness for just a few minutes.
I’ve been working out of two offices which can be, in a word, confusing. Some mornings I forget where I’m supposed to be (not really, but you get my point.)
So I went to lunch. Chinese food was calling my name, so I went and had lunch alone. Sometimes I do that. I don’t mind eating by myself and yesterday it was nice to just clear my head. The lady who runs the restaurant (she’s been there for years) has always been a bit of a sourpuss, but yesterday, we connected.
She was watching a soap opera. I have no idea what the name was but it visually was quite beautiful. And there were samurais in the soap opera which apparently was set back when samurais were popular. I know very little about the Chinese language but the show was subtitled in Mandarin, so you can imagine that I had no idea what was going on.
But, I watched it and was sort of getting the gist of it all, and man, if there wasn’t a lot going on. I figured out our samurai hero was conflicted about something and I was sort of getting into it. The words didn’t matter, but you could see the emotion of it all. Emotion and passion doesn’t need translation.
When she noticed I was watching the show having no idea what was going on but watching nonetheless, she smiled at me and told me a little bit about it.
She called it a soap opera and said her family sends her the videos from home. She mentioned what city she was from but I didn’t recognize it.
This means little, I guess, but I needed just a few minutes like this yesterday. A moment with a woman (who in the past had been a little bit grouchy when I would come in to eat) who smiled when she noticed that I was paying attention to something that obviously meant a lot to her.
For whatever reason, that smile made me feel pretty good.
Who would have thought a samurai soap opera would make two very different women who had seen each other for years have a moment?
And, the few minutes cleared my mind.
Just a slice of life moment, you know. I really should start paying attention to the little things. There usually the things that cheer us up in the long run anyway.
In college, my Japanese roommate and I bonded over him explaining to me what was going on while he watched episodes of the anime “Cowboy Bebop.”
Ironically, I was listening to “Tank” this morning.
Damn if I don’t love that.
Egg Foo Young and the Restless?
As the Won Ton Turns?
General Tso Hospital?
I could go on……
Oh do.
This is great!
You mean like the lift I always get reading your blog.
Tom,
***blushes***
Thanks
Wonton Life to Live
All My Chicken Wings
When people tell me anime is all Dragon Ball Z and hentai, I point them in the direction of Cowboy Bebop, and Bleach is kind of growing on me as well.
I have had days when life was horribly busy….My husband seems to know when I need a few moments to myself. I treat myself to something to eat, or a walk in the park. It’s amazing how just a few moments of freedom from the chaos of life can brings things back to a place where you can breathe and think clearly again. I have seen a couple of foreign movies that I enjoyed even though I didn’t understand a word.
Marsha,
Isn’t it amazing when you take that much needed breathe and it sort of washes over you that everything is going to be okay.
Thanks for commenting.
My former, Japanese sister in law used to get videos from her mother in Osaka of all these Japanese shows. She probably still gets them.
I’ve heard a neat story about how when Mr. Smiff went to Japan the first time (for wedding of said former sister in law and his brother) he and her dad sat up all night “talking” over sake. That’s not unusual when you consider Mr. Fujita spoke not a single word of English and Mr. Smiff’’s Japanese vocabulary was no more than “Ohiyo gozimus” (however you spell it). Still, they communicated. I think he told Mr. S how selfish his daughter was.
Oh…and if it was Chinese it was no Samurai. They tend to get all insulted when you confuse one with the other. Big time. That cracks me up cause to me (and most Americans), Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc. all look the same but not to them. The Former SIster In Law told me one time they think all Americans look the same.
No, she’s Chinese, you were right although I don’t know from where, but the soap she was walking was a Mandarin “soap opera” from China that had a Samurai.
I asked the same question
this story made me smile on a day when I needed it. Thanks
Your welcome.