Melissa's Place

There’s an eel in my bathtub

Mark has some of the best stories. People love to hear them and even though I think I’ve heard most of them, they somehow never get old. The other day, he told one of my favourites, so I thought I’d share it with you.

For those of you who didn’t know, Mark spent a year teaching English in Japan. He tried taking Japanese lessons before going (because Thunder Bay is reknowned for their Japanese lessons) but somehow still had communication issues while abroad. These “issues” lead to some quirky mishaps and fun stories. This one came up as he was explaining to a friend how delicious barbecued eel can be.

He apparently loves to enter his name in contests. So one day, while in Japan, Mark entered his name in a contest at the grocery store. A week or so later, he received a phone call at work. Someone was speaking very excited Japanese which he did not understand (not that he was an expert at this point at understanding less excited Japanese either) so he handed the phone over to a co-worker who reported to him that he had won something!

Off Mark went to the grocery store, likely quite excited and a bit curious. He was horrified when the salesclerk handed him a bag containing water and a live eel. Not knowing exactly what to do with this live eel, he freed it into the depths of his bathtub. Then he avoided showering for a week so as not to have his toes nibbled on.

A tiny old, old, old lady who lived down the hall from him (whom he also paid to do his laundry and bring him hot lunches at work every day) came by to visit one night and asked him how he was doing. Despite their communication gap, she could tell by his exasperated (if not a bit greasy) expression that something was wrong. She followed him to the bathroom and saw the eel. How jubilant she was. “You won the contest!” she exclaimed in Japanese. She reached into the bathtub, secured her tiny hands around the eel’s neck-region and swiftly twisted. An audible cracking sound that made Mark cringe announced the end to his shower hiatus. Then she went back to her apartment and cooked up some wonderful and delicious barbecued eel.