Charades/communicating in another language

Here in Japan there is a language barrier between us and the locals. I know a little bit of Japanese and you can find a Japanese person every now and then that knows a small amount of English where we are able to communicate (if you want to call it that). Most of the time though there is a lot of smiling and nodding as my Japanese will pretty much only get me to the bathroom or let someone know my proficiency in counting to 10. If I really need something I need to find it myself or think of another way to describe what I am looking for. 

This happens to take place at the grocery store every once in a while. I'm glad I played games when I was younger because i got some practice at charades.

 Over here it switched from a game to a necessity. For example if you want something to drink and don't know how to say drink/liquid you could pretend you are drinking something, point to a certain direction/aisle in store and shrug your shoulders. Or, if you wanted ice cream you could pretend like you are holding an ice cream cone and licking it - the message would be pretty clear.

But what if you were in the store and you needed sugar?

A while ago I was in the store and needed sugar. Should be no problem to find...........except it wasn't. I walked around and around and all I could find was salt. Not just little salt shakers of it but big bags of it. Just laughing at me and teasing me that I couldn't find what I needed, tempting me to buy it for the banana muffins we were making. 

I must have went around 3 times looking for it and kept missing it as it was obviously there. A little frustrated I started to think about how I could ask for it. I didn't know the Japanese word for it so I began to think how I could communicate it some other way. My brain automatically jumped to charades. But.....how do you charades sugar? Do you grab a bag of salt, take it to a  worker, pretend to put it in your mouth, make a yucky face, then point out into the store like you need something, pretend to grab another pinch of salt but this time smile and rub your belly for a good taste?

Or, do you grab a bag of coffee and go to a worker. Pretend to hold a cup and point from the coffee to the cup so they know you are holding a pretend cup of coffee. Then take a drink and make a yucky face. Now pretend to pour something into the coffee and after another drink make a big smile and rub your belly so they know whatever you just did made the coffee taste better. Then pretend to pour something into the coffee again and shrugging your shoulders point out into the store asking where it, the sugar, can be found. Is this a good way to do it?

Can you think of a better way?

Sure you could use the app on your phone to translate what you want to say, but the app requires connection to a network or wifi, both of which you do not have.

Life in another county can be interesting at times and really get the brain thinking. Pretty much everyone here is patient enough to try and understand the point I am trying to get across. I can only hope that if people in America run into the same situation with someone who doesn't speak English that they are patient enough to try help them. It would be great if everyone could understand each other all the time but that's not always the case. Being overseas in different countries where different languages are spoken you learn in a hurry how hard it can be when you aren't able to say what you want to.