Ramen disaster

So I went to Tenshin for ramen today. The place was packed as usual so I sat down sharing a table across from this couple, and there was an empty seat next to me. It is possible that I violated some unwritten Japanese social contract by sharing a table. It had been an unusually hot day, I could've worn just t-shirts and jenes.

The place had regular ramen, miso ramen, and veggie (yasai) ramen. I ordered a ramen with miso and veggie--"miso to yasai kudasai (miso and veggie please)"--I had heard someone order it the last time I was there, it wasn't on the menu but it sounded pretty good.

A few minutes later, they brought me a veggie ramen and a miso ramen. Two bowls. I tried to explain that I wanted miso and veggie together, but just veggie is fine. "Okay desu." She brought the miso back. Everyone in the shop stared at me, I was slightly embarassed. I just wanted to finish and get the hell out of there.

Few more minutes later, she brought out another bowl of miso veggie. I was about finished with my veggie ramen, my mouth was full and I'm sweating from ramen heat and everybody was staring at me. Somehow she understood when I tried to tell her that I'm by myself, and wanted just one miso veggie. She insisted that it's okay, took away my almost done bowl and told me to eat a little more (I think).

I stared down at my new bowl of miso veggie. It was steaming hot and I kept sweating. Everybody kept staring at me, I knew it even without looking up. There was a discussion behind the counter, and the words "miso" and "yasai" were used repeatedly.

There was no way I could finished a second bowl, so I took a few slurps at it, got up and whispered "gochisoosamadesu" and paid. Of course, the confusion was again repeated at the counter. I paid for one bowl of miso yasai, eventhough a total of 3 bowls were brought to me. I kept apologizing and she kept apologizing. I just wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. So I turned around,

And ran smack into the next customer coming in.

(updated 11/13/04)
After a day on Daisen with Courtney, Amy, and Simona, we (minus Courtney) returned to Tenshin. The ramen obasan recognized me as the miso to yasai ramen guy and apologized yet again, so I had to tell the embarassing story. I knew I shoulda waited longer before going back again to remain in cognito.