I was in line to use a restroom in a busy bookstore. When my turn finally came, I shut the sliding door behind me and tried to lock it, but when I turned the dealie clockwise, instead of locking, it looked as if a dead bolt popped out and slid open the door a little. If I turned it left, nothing happened. There were the kanji for “open” and “close” written on the lock, but in that “high tension” situation in which I knew people were waiting in line and probably seeing that I had no idea what I was doing, I opted to stop trying to lock the door and just go. The next lady in line knew I was in there, so no one would come up and open the door, right?
To my horror, as I peed quickly and repeated over and over in my head, “Someone is gonna open the door. Someone is gonna open the door,” someone opened the door.
“Sumimasen! Sumimasen!” (“Excuse me! I’m freaking in here!?!?”), as the door opened a couple inches and in peered a sweet Japanese girl toddler’s face. She, innocent, and I, bewildered, stared at each other for a few seconds before she slowly slid the door shut. I quickly finished up, washed my hands, and coolly walked out of the bathroom, and to my even greater surprise, no one let on that anything had happened. No look of embarrassment or sympathy or faked oblivion or any other sort of acknowledgement at all. The next woman in line brushed past me without so much as a look, and when I passed by the apparent mother of the Peeping Tomantha, she looked as if she had no idea what her cute little demon daughter had done to me.
Memorize the kanji for “open” and “close” by heart, and always lock the bathroom door at all costs.
HILARIOUS. You were mortified but it wasn't even a big deal to everyone else. Was it a Japanese style toilet of western? Japanese style you woulda had your butt all hanging out!
ReplyDeleteHahaha! Thank god that in this case it was a western toilet. I didn't even think about that!!!!!
ReplyDelete