From Tuna to LGBT

My co-workers are the best thing about this job.

They are so busy and tired from constant work but somehow this results in the best laughs I've had in my time here. Today was no exception.

The first thing said to me this morning was 'Early bird gets the Sea Chicken'. Not in English of course but it was equally as non-sensical in Japanese.

I walked over to the break table to find a whole tray of different 'sea chicken' cans; or canned Tuna as we would say. They were facinated by my 'excellent' pronunciation of Tuna. This is not the first time I've been complimented about my English ability either. You'd almost think it was my native language.

My Kacho (boss) then spent the rest of the day educating the office on the pronunciation of Tuna (read: chuna) and talking about Chuna Sarada (read: Tuna Salad) because... nope I'm lost.

For the first half of the day all I was hearing was whispers from co-workers about Chuna and Chuna Sarada UNTIL someone found a book which I think is about discrimination in schools.

As I typed away at my orientation prep I suddenly heard someone in a very loud voice announce "LGBT". I immediately stopped my work out of amusement and looked to my right as two male colleagues hunched over the book like giddy school girls. "Re-zu-bi-an, gei..." they began as I smiled and asked them if I could help. One of them began indicating to the other that I was watching and jabbed his finger in my direction. They did the usual Japanese "hohhh..." to show interest and continued silently.

I'm not sure they knew what they were reading until he said it out loud.

Now all I hear in the office is:

"Chuna"

"Eru-ji-bi-chi" (LGBT)

"Chuna"

"Gei"

"Chuna"

"Chuna Sarada"

It doesn't take much to make me laugh.

::EDIT::
And I just had 'Unagi Bone Powder' explained to me for the n-th time. Oh Hamamatsu.