I almost smelt a rat

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Last nite as I was heading to the subway I passed a gray ball of fuzz in the tunnel. It was not a rat, literrally just a giant dustball, but it got me thinking about rats...

You don't see rats in Japan. Oh, they're out there, just not visible. I've only seen a rat once here and this is the story:

At the time I was living in Wakayama-Ken. Through my friend Shannon (a NZer) I met Shin. Shin was an aspiring guitarist living in Osaka City. He had studied English in Australia and had big plans to return and make it BIG as a rock star. Hey, we all have dreams! On this particular day, Shin had invited me to join his band's practice. Band name forgotten...band mates names, yeah, also forgotten! Except for Daisuke who reminded me of my brother!

So I went to their practice which was honestly uneventful. But afterwards we decided to get ookonomiyaki. Ookonomiyaki is a specialty dish famous in Osaka. Basically it contains egg, cabbage, meat or seafood, and a pancake-like batter. You grill it at your table into a round shape about 7 inches in diameter.

We went to an Ookonomiyaki place underground. They were lugging around all their band equipment. About 4 guitars and maybe a keyboard. I sat by the wall, Shin sat next to me, Daisuke next to him. The lead singer was dealing with his guitar and his girlfriend (also a band member) had gone off to the restroom.

The waitress came over to get our drink order and turn on the grill. I was leaning on the table. The grill covers the table excepter for 4 inches around the edge. As she turns on the grill and we heard the flame go WHOOOOOSH! A RAT jumped out of the crumb corner! (crumb corner is where you scape the crumbs and oil. I think it leads to the flame under the grill and gets burned up) The crumb corner was really close to my elbow. Daisuke, Shin, and I all scooted back in our chairs and collectively gasped.

The rat then ran to the edge of the table (away from me thankfully!) jumped up on the wall separating us from the next table, ran along the top of that and jumped to the floor and disappeared.

We were all in shock. By then the lead singer had turned around and was like " what happened???" But none of us could say anything...our mouths were just hanging open and our faces contorted looks or horror.

The waitress, thouroughly embarrassed excused herself.

Someone (maybe me?) finally managed to tell the lead singer "Rat" and point the crumb corner. He finally understood through our poor speech and gestures after a few minutes. His gf had still not returned and we didn't know what to do....leave, stay.....

Because she took so long, we ended up staying and moving to a different table. But the whole time we took turns scrunching up our faces to replicate our initial looks of shock. The lead singer, who missed the rat, did great impressions of the rest of us.

so that's my story. And this is why I know rats do exist in Japan!

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