Sample

Day 1 of Japan, and I have already embarrassed myself.  Thank goodness the Japanese are gracious and helpful.  In the large food mart section of a major department store, I noticed a store selling unusual biscuit things.  What were they like, I wondered.  Soft and beany?  Dry and crumbly?  Fortunately, there was a plate on the counter with a sticker marked "sample" and there was one for the taking!  So I grabbed it, hoping that it was not tooo rude to take the last sample.  The thing resisted when I tried splitting it in half to share with Josh.  Bwa ha ha more for me!  I chomped on it.  Hard.  But it didn't give.  Wow, I thought.  This is a terrible cookie.  Stale as rubber, or maybe it's a special cookie that I don't know how to eat.  Then the man behind the counter came up to me reaching out his hand and saying something I could not understand, but if I had to guess, it was probably, "whoawhoa so sorry but that is made of plastic."  I returned the "sample" to him and walked away as fast as I could.  Because only a curious baby or a Gaijin would do that, and I wished I was the baby.