I Know Nothing

So Friday night at the airport, I'm putting my shoes back on after going through security, when I notice these two Japanese girls having problems at the scanner. Apparently, they had a lighter in their bag and the clerk was trying to ask them how they wanted to deal with it - throw it out, mail it back to themselves, or take it outside. So she yells out, 'Does anyone know how to say "matches" in Japanese??'

I perked up and got excited. My first instinct was to jump up and say, "I'm taking a Japanese class, how may I be of assistance?" But then I started going over my Japanese vocabulary in my head: "My name is Claudia." "How are you?" "It's very nice to meet you." "Hello." "Goodbye." "Good morning." "Good evening." "See you later." FUCK! Nothing about matches at all! I quickly realized I wasn't as useful as I had hoped to be.

My next thought was to look up the words in my Japanese text, which I happened to have on my carry-on. By the time I got it out and flipped to the index, though, the girls were already heading out to dispose of the lighter. And "matches" wasn't anywhere to be found in my book anyway.

So yeah.. It kinda bummed me out that I didn't know enough Japanese to help the situation.