I had some sushi from the store the other night, and I put a little too much wasabi on it. The rush of pain flew through my nostrils, and for a moment, I thought I might die. The pain subsided quickly, but it also reminded me of a little story from back in Junior High…the story of The Wasabi Sandwich:
At my school, each student was assigned a locker where we could keep our books, lunch, and other belongings during class. Each locker had a built in combination lock, and it was up to you to guard that combo with your life. This was a difficult task, as everytime you opened it, there were hundreds of kids crowding around, any one of whom could be sneaking a peek as you twisted the dial.
I never told my locker combo to anyone, but somehow, somebody got it, and started stealing from me. The weird part about it was what they stole…
One day, at lunchtime, I went to my locker to grab lunch and meet up with some friends. When I opened the bag, I noticed something was gone: my sandwich. At first I thought I was losing my mind. Why? Because I made my lunch every morning, and I distinctly remembered making a sandwich on that day.
Everything else was in the bag: a drink, some chips, an orange, and a cookie…basically, the very items any normal kid would want to steal! Who would steal a sandwich, and leave all the other good stuff? It all seemed too strange, and I tried to put it out of my mind, assuring myself that I must have been half-asleep when I made lunch in the morning.
The next day, I made sure everything was in my bag before putting it in the locker, but come lunchtime, the sandwich was gone…again. I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach, and there was no more denying it:
Some punk had my locker combination.
I ate my bag of chips that day, and thought about the predicament I was in. My friends shared their food with me, but I couldn’t freeload off them everyday. What could I do? The school wouldn’t help me. It was run by a bunch of clowns. As I said before, the locks were built into the lockers, so the only way to change the combo was to have a specialist come down and do it.
The sandwich snatching went on for almost two weeks, and I was becoming more and more curious as to who the culprit was. One day, I was hanging out at my friend’s house, and we were looking around in his kitchen for some grub. He was half-Japanese, and his dad liked to cook, so there were tons of Japanese ingredients over there. One time, his pops cooked sushi for my family, and I remembered how my dad almost died when he mistook the wasabi for guacamole. Hmmm, I wonder what a wasabi sandwich would taste like?
My friend liked the idea, so we squeezed an entire tube of wasabi around the center of a piece of bread. Then we surrounded the wasabi with peanut butter and jelly, and after putting the second slice of bread on top, it appeared to be a good old-fashioned PB&J. ‘Wow, I can’t wait to eat this tomorrow.’ I thought as I put it in a ziplock baggy.
But unfortunately, I was unable to try my wasabi sandwich. You see, like clockwork, the sandwich theif struck again. When I opened my bag at 12:00 pm, everything was there, minus my tasty sandwich. ‘Oh well, I hope they enjoy it,’ I thought. ‘Maybe they’ll even complement me after lunch on my cooking.’
I waited all day for something to happen, but nothing did. The next day, I brought my lunch to school, with a turkey sandwich, and come lunchtime…surprise, surprise…the sandwich was still in my bag! Same thing the next day, and the day after that.
In fact, for the rest of the year, nothing was taken from my locker ever again. I never did find out who the perpetrator was, but I can only imagine their surprise after swallowing a tubefull of wasabi.
Lesson to be learned, don’t steal from the cook.
It is interesting story.
By the way, do you know the game using wasabi in food like that you did ?It’s a kind of Russian roulett and pupuler(?) in Japan.
You make foods (sandwich is ok) for number of members attending the game, and put tons of wasabi inside only one food beforehand.
Each of members select a food for themselves one by one, and eat them at the same time. You can find the person who eat food with wasabi soon. I think you can guess the reason.
Do you like a game like that?
I’ve never tryed it.
It’s fun. Well done!
I guess that punk might think it was poisoned.
I rather curious that you never depended on the school teachers. You didn’t report it even though the school was run by bunch of clowns.
In Japan, most of the students must report the theft cases at school to the teachers. And the teachers are responsible to solve the problems. If the teachers don’t do anything about it, the parents would accuse them!
If the teachers had been dependable, would you have reported to them? Or, even though, would you have made the wasabi sandwich?
Anyway, I think your solution was the best!
I like your story, it’s always fun,
But this story may be the best!
Thanks for the comments everybody!
That wasabi game Atsushi was talking about sounds pretty intense. I don’t think I could try it. But at least your chances of dying are less than with Russian Roulette.
Why did I take matters into my own hands instead of telling the teachers? There are two reasons:
1. Like I said before, the school was run by clowns, and as most of the teachers were incompetent boobs, I knew they would never help me. Instead, they’d probably blame me for letting someone get my locker combo.
However, that wasn’t the only reason. There were a couple of good teachers who I could rely on, but this is where factor #2 comes into play:
2. The “tattle tale” effect. Nobody likes a tattletale, especially in Junior High. It’s best to handle your own problems, cause tattling is something to be reserved for emergencies only (example: if you overheard a plot to blow up the school).
I know it sounds stupid now, but I think most kids never go to teachers for help due to factor #2.
I understand why you didn’t ask your teacher to help you.
I think it’s the same in Japan both #1 and #2.
Maybe the person that was breaking into your locker just had the combo from the previous year. I agree though, schools in the states are a joke. I got jumped by my dean in high school, then got kicked out because they faked paper work saying I had been expelled years prior to that. They even tried to have me arrested for trespassing when I showed up for school the next day.
I ended up getting my diploma sooner that way though, so, they’re dumb.