What was our misunderstanding?

I was at the store wanting to know if the oatmeal package was quick cooking oatmeal or not, but I don't know how to translate "quick-cooking oats," so I figured I'd simply ask how long it takes to cook and by the answer I'd know.

I asked a clerk how long it takes to cook. He went to ask another clerk. That clerk didn't seem to understand me. I was trying to explain if I just put water in a pot and heat it up and add the oatmeal, how long it takes to cook. They kept looking at me strange, and asked me if I was trying to cook it like rice porridge (okayu) and I said yes (meaning I just cook the oats in hot water). They mentioned gyunyu, but I said, no just hot water (I didn't go into the fact that I don't want to cook it in milk because I don't drink milk.) They said I can't cook it that way (dekimasen). I turned the box around and pointed to the photo that shows oatmeal (as opposed to other things you can make with oatmeal like bakery items) and said, like that one... how long does it take to cook it like that? They just kept repeating themselves and saying dekimasen.

By then, I wanted to say forget it, but they went and got another clerk, and we basically went around in the same circle. I was already frustrated and wanted to leave, but they got a 4th clerk!!! And we went around in the same circle again. Hoo Boy! Okay, I learned my lesson. Never ask something that I probably already know (I assume it probably WAS quick cook oats) and never ask something I could probably figure out (I could have read the back of the box myself and figured it out myself, trying to look for the numbers ...... BUT it just so happened that I was EXHAUSTED at that time and thought it might be quicker and easier to just ask a "simple" question.

SO. My question is not whether it was quick cook oats or not. I already can guess. My question is can anyone figure out what they were trying to tell me or where we were misunderstanding each other? Do they not know about eating oatmeals like porridge? Is it too foreign a concept for the Japanese to imagine eating oatmeal cooked in water?

Just so puzzled about this! Maybe enough that I'll try asking this at another store on a day when I'm not tired, and see what kind of response I get there!

I guess they just didn't know - in Japan oats are usually eaten as breakfast cereal or cooked with milk (if at all), so cooking in hot water may not be that common. Also I have not seen the "instant" oats - the ones that come in serving-sized packets and you just pour hot water over in a coffee cup - so the store clerks simply might not have been familiar with the idea of cooking oats in hot water.

MomotaroPeachBoy,

Was it either your typical Quaker Oatmeal with the white-haired guy on the box or the Nisshoku Oatmeal as shown below?
http://www.nihonshokuhin.co.jp/products/oats500.html

If so, I'm afraid I have no idea what the misunderstanding was, because both products, at least the type you most commonly see in stores in Japan, can be cooked in water in only a few minutes (for the Nisshoku one, either 1 minute in microwave or 5 minutes on gas). You are free to add milk at the end, but instructions on the box always say you should start cooking in water.

Perhaps they only carried a kind I don't know of, but it's hard to imagine that you can't cook something in water what you can cook in milk. Either way, if I were you, I would've just asked them to translate the instructions written on the back of the box. And if that doesn't work, I'd just walk away with a smile and a word of "thank you," because store clerks aren't supposed to run after you and grab you on the shoulder and drag you back just to make you talk to the useless fourth person :)

(But I must confess that when I was in Catalonia beach resort, 1 clerk and 3 customers were too kind to make a great fuss over a picnic sheet I was looking for, and 5 minutes after I gave up and left the store, one of them came running after me explaining in a language I don't know that I should go back because they found it, in which I did to see that what they only had was a floating mat.)

I am a Japanese and have never had oatmeal in my 56 years of life. I think most, if not all, Japanese do not have chance to experience oatmeal. Actually I am surprised that some oatmeals are sold in (an ordinary?) store in Japan. I guess ordinary Japanese will not buy them.

Therefore my answers are as follows.

-My question is can anyone figure out what they were trying to tell me or where we were misunderstanding each other?

I think all of them did not know about oatmeal, however, they could not say that they do not know.

-Do they not know about eating oatmeals like porridge?

Yes, I think so. Possibly they did not know oatmeals by itself.

-Is it too foreign a concept for the Japanese to imagine eating oatmeal cooked in water?

Well, hard to answer. If they did not know oatmeals by itself, they should have no concept in eating oatmeals.

-Never ask something that I probably already know

I think you are right. They should say they did not know about oatmeals and, maybe, you might say you know well about the product.

If you want to get out of a situation where you've got a person helping you who go gets another person to help you who gets another person who gets a whole company of people to try and convey something to you...

You can always feel free to wait for a moment where it is appropriate to pretend that something finally clicked and be like あ〜、なるほど！どうもありがとう！ (Ah, Naruhodo! Doumoarigatou!) then just walk away and either ask someone else (out of their range of sight) or do as you please otherwise.

So yeah... that's one way to get out of it without really displeasing anyone.

To compound the problem, was this conversation in English or Japanese?

I agree with the above, 99.99% of Japanese people have never eaten oatmeal and wouldn't have the faintest idea how to cook it, even if they work in shops that sell it, and particularly guys. The instructions on the back of oatmeal packs often say to cook either with water or hot milk.

Anyway, there's a motivation to learn to read Japanese for you- if you study a bit it shouldn't be too long before you can understand enough of basic cooking vocab to know what the instructions are.

okay, thanks for all your replies. it wasn't quaker oats or the other one, it was a brand that started with an "N" I guess they were just not familiar with cooking oatmeal although I don't understand why they just didn't read the back and tell me how to cook it. yeah, I should have asked them to. thanks for the tip on "getting out of an embarrassing gathering" of all the available clerks in a huge circle with red faced me, ha ha!

Oh, and the conversation was in Japanese.

Maybe it was Nihonshokuhin brand? I don't remember, but it was in a different packaging, plastic, not a cylindrical box.