We are checking in, at Yonago airport, for the flight back to Korea.   The lady asks for 'onward documents'.  I don't know what that means, so I just hand her my passport, like everyone does everytime they check in for any plane. She asks me how  how long I will be in Korea. It seems to bother her when I answer that I live there.

She types a lot into her terminal-- her fingers rattling the keys authoritatively.   But the concern on her face only deepens.

She starts muttering to herself about kimchi.  "I don't think we have enough kimchi."

"It's okay," I reassure her, " I don't really eat so much of it."

The hate she flashes me is stunning.  They aren't supposed to have that level of  hate here in Japan.  Japan is about manners and nicety.  

"I don't eat much of anything."  I continue, a little unsure of myself.  "Mostly cereal and bagels."  It isn't really true, but I'm panicking.

She goes off to another desk, then comes back.    She is flustered, so I mime spreading cream cheese onto a bagel for her.  It's probably 'Creemu cheezu' in Japanese, but who knows if she would even know what it is.  

She mumbles again about kimchi, and about proving you are from Korea.

"Oh," I say, realizing what she wants. "Kimchi doesn't prove anything. I just use this." I hand her my korean residence card.  

She seems happy with this.

"You should just use easy words from the start instead of all that Kimchi nonsense.  Foreigners don't know what onward documents are."