Another example of me making an ass of myself...

I went to the video store, grabbed the video I wanted and went up to the counter. At what I thought was the appropriate time, I told the man that I wanted it for two days and three nights. [Which, in my extremely limited Japanese means I said, "Two, three," while holding up my fingers in case there was any confusion.] The video clerk started going into a very long tirade about something. As he was talking, I just kept saying, very quietly, "I don't understand what you're saying. I'm sorry. I don't understand," in English. When he had finished, he went through it again, only this time louder. I had the feeling that everyone in the store was looking at me and the fact that the damn clerk was now almost yelling wasn't helping... In the same quiet voice I just said, "Hi," and paid the money, took my video and slinked out of there...

While I was walking home I took the video out of the bag and looked at the receipt taped to it. The video was due back in a week. The man had been telling me that it was a week-long rental...