Lonely Japan: Tonkatsu

This is part 5 of Lonely Japan, a series written by a friend of mine who used to live in Japan. Read the previous parts here.

Slept a lot for the next two days and stayed away from alcohol. Didn't leave my room much, except when they were serving food downstairs. Tried cleaning up the clothes that were all over the place, but only ending up consolidating them into a large pile in the corner. Changed the blade on the boxcutter with some of the replacement blades that came with it because it was starting to rust. Found some little bottles of liquid antabuse that I had forgotten about. Thought about taking it, noticed it needed to be refrigerated and put it in a drawer.

By the third day I was feeling well enough to leave the dorm, which was good because the kitchen was closed and I was on my own for food. Got on my bicycle sometime in the afternoon and rode off in the direction of the nearby supermarket. Streets were mostly empty. Saw an elderly woman leaning on a concrete wall near an empty playground on the way. Her back was bent and she was carrying a few bags. Not sure what was in them. She must have been waiting for something, though I don't remember there being a bus stop there. Her eyes were fixated on the sidewalk in front of her. She didn't look up as I passed.

Locked my bike to a pole in front of the store and walked inside. They usually had good prepared food that wasn't too expensive. If you waited till the store was almost closed you could usually get it for a significant discount. It wasn't near closing, but I needed to eat. Was trying to decide between some tonkatsu and a hanbagu bento when I noticed a man and an older women shopping not far from me. The man was speaking in a voice that was louder than I was used to hearing from Japanese people, and he moved in awkward jerky motions. He turned towards me and it became apparent that he must have had down syndrome. The woman noticed I was watching them and looked over at me. She smiled and said something to me. I think it was “good afternoon” or something about the weather. I don't remember exactly. I bowed my head, forced a smile and quickly left the aisle. The mans eyes followed me as I walked past. Not sure if he continued to watch me as I grabbed three tall cans of beer and checked out. I didn't look back.

Took my time heading home. Drank two of the beers near the empty playground while watching the shadows from the equipment grow. Drank the third near a park with large sign that said “no sports”. By the time I got back to the dorm the sun had almost set. Sat on my bicycle behind the building where the locks were and watched it go down the rest of the way.   

Lonely Japan: Onigiri

This is part 4 of Lonely Japan, a series written by a friend of mine who used to live in Japan. [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]

Woke up the next day to the sun light shining through the curtains onto my face and got out of bed. Dried the box-cutter that was still in the sink to keep it from rusting and moved a few of the boxes on the floor towards the door to take to the garbage room. Laid back down because of the pain in my forehead. Woke up again a few hours later and didn’t feel much better. Took some aspirin (I think it was aspirin) that I had bought at the drugstore near the local supermarket and thought about laying down again. Decided missing my tests wasn’t an option and headed off to school.


On the way to the train station I stopped at the conbini and bought a liter bottle of water and some onigiri. Breakfast at the dorm had ended long before I woke up and I figured I needed to eat something. Ate one of the onigiri while waiting for my train in the station. Couldn’t taste it so put the other one I had bought in my bag and sat there trying to drink the water, but it only amplified the bad taste in my mouth. On the wall across the track from the waiting area was an advertisement featuring a popstar/model (she might have been a model/popstar, not sure) squeezing a lemon in one hand and holding a sweating can of chu-hi in the other. She was winking and her tongue was curled up over her teeth. Was thinking about whether the lemon chu-hi was actually her favorite flavor when the train arrived.


Train was crowded enough that I couldn’t get a seat. I stood near the door holding the handles that hang down from the ceiling and hung my head towards the ground. A high school girl with yellow hair was squatting near the door typing very quickly on her phone with bright pink 3 inch nails. It looked difficult. The train headed underground and I stared out the window, could almost make out the gray shapes flying by. At one of those stations on the way to school another foreigner got on board. He noticed me, recognized that I had noticed him, and came over.


Him: Where you from?
Me: United States.
Him: I thought so.
Me: Where are you from?
Him: Australia. What brings you to Tokyo?
Me: Studying, how about you?
Him: (Ignoring my question) How you liking it so far? Enjoying the sushi?
Me: It’s going well. I actually haven’t eat as much sushi as I thought I would when I first got here.
Him: *laughing* No no no…I mean sushi. You know…the girls.
Me: Oh.
Him: Well you’re missing out, you should give it a go.
Me: Ok.


He got off at the next stop after telling me to go to a club he often went to. Made it to school in time to sit for my exams. Threw up a few times in the bathroom during the break in between sections. Thought I didn’t do too poorly on them. On the way home I had to get off at one of the stops along the way and threw up in a trashcan. When I was done, I sat on a bench and watched the branches of a nearby tree sway in the wind while I waited for the next train to come.

Lonely Japan: Fish

This is part 3 of Lonely Japan, an ongoing series written by a friend of mine. If you haven't, check out part 1 and part 2.
-Paul

Wasn’t much to do where I got off. I went to a conbini (think it was an AMPM-not as good as Lawson), bought a drink and decided I should go to a bar. Japanese bars are nice in that they tell you their beer prices before you go in, usually on a little blackboard folding sign outside the bar. Draft beer for 500 yen was the price point I was looking for. Found one nestled in between what looked like a house and a restaurant that specialized in shiny hambagu and cabbage (if the plastic food in the window was any indication). Had to go down some narrow stairs to get to the bar. Slipped once, but managed to catch myself before falling too far.


There were 5 people in the bar - the bartender, a guy in his 20’s (maybe 30’s?) with a girl of around the same age, a salary man, and me. I sat at the bar, leaving a stool in between myself and the salary man, and started drinking a medium mug of whatever happened to be on tap. The bar tender put a little dish of what looked like tuna and maybe some daikon in front of me. I ate it—wasn’t bad. On my second mug the salary man turned to me (he was drunk too) and started speaking to me in Japanese. I think he was talking about nuclear bombs. He didn’t leave much room for me to add anything to the conversation so it didn't matter that I couldn’t really understand him. I didn’t notice him getting annoyed either, so I continued to nod along with whatever he was saying and ordered a third mug. I spilled the last half of my third beer all over the bar and the floor. Some of it got on the girl’s shoes. She looked unhappy. I decided to leave.


Managed to arrive at the train station close to my dorm and set about retrieving my bicycle from the underground parking garage. There weren’t many bicycles left at that hour so it was easy to find. I remember someone telling me once that riding a bicycle while intoxicated was illegal in Japan. I’m not sure why it is (if it is), the only person you are going to hurt is yourself. I was an expert at drunk riding and there were no koban on the way to my dorm so I rode on down the street. Stopped at the Lawson on the way and picked up some chips, a plate of pepperoncini pasta, a box-cutter, some Black Nikka, coke, and a little cup of ice.


Near the dorm was a bridge crossing a little creek. Moon was bright enough to see the water and the blue tarps and cardboard set up underneath, maybe it was just the light from the surrounding houses. I remember some people used to fish in the creek during the day. Don’t remember ever seeing any fish, though I’m not sure you should eat them even if there were. I stopped on the bridge and stared down at the light reflecting off the water. Reminded me of stars. Looked up at the sky and saw only the moon and darkness.


The dorm I lived in was home to mostly unmarried salary men and a handful of foreigners. I rarely saw any of the salary men. There was one time when I first arrived at the dorm that one of them invited me to hang out. We sat in his room drinking awful tasting Korean alcohol that came in some kind of juice box while he showed me his computer and his manga collection I brought him to my room and showed him my computer, he said the fan on it sounded like a hair dryer. We finished our alcohol boxes and I never saw him again. If not for the blue light that sometimes came out from underneath their doors at night you’d think no one lived there at all.


When I got home the hallway was completely dark. I went into my room, stepped over the piles of clothes and empty boxes, made myself a drink and sat down in front of the computer. After a while I couldn’t read the words on the screen anymore and figured it was probably a good time to go to sleep. I had exams the next day.

Lonely Japan: The Train

This is part two of a series written by a friend of mine. You can read part 1 here.

-Paul

On the train I managed to secure a seat (rush hour had passed at this point) at the edge of the bench. This is the choicest of seats on the train, as it not only limits your exposure to other human beings but also allows you to sleep against the metal railings that bookend the benches. Sleeping on the train after, or while, drinking is quite dangerous. Usually ends up with you at the end of the line somewhere in the sticks being woken up by a man in white gloves who only speaks the incomprehensible dialect of Japanese men over 50. I was not interested in sleeping, or meeting the man in the white gloves, so I made sure to not slouch too much.

Across from me were a mother and her child. The child (believe it was a girl) was probably around three or four and was crawling all over the seat and her mother, who was sitting with her eyes pointed directly at the handbag in between her feet. I watched the little girl maneuver around, avoiding a series of missed head injury opportunities, until she became aware of my presence. She stopped immediately and stared straight at me, expressionless. I smiled at her. I also tried to wave, but my hands were occupied with their important chu-hi holding task so it was more of a “can-shake” than a wave. The girl giggled, and I managed to spill some liquid on my jeans. The mother must not have pleased, however, and without looking up from the ground picked up her daughter and quickly shuffled down to the other end of the train car. Maybe I should have shaved, would have made me look more “hip-bar owner” drunk than “this guy probably talks to stray cats” drunk.

The newer trains have little monitors above the doors to each car, and they are usually good for a few minutes diversion. I looked up at the one closest to me. There was some kind of kanji riddle (maybe it was a joke?) that I couldn’t fully understand. The animal/creature on the screen thought it was hilarious so it must have been funny. Next came the train system status report. A few of the lines were delayed due to accidents. I’m not really sure what kind of accidents these are but they can’t be too bad if they only delay the trains a few minutes, right? Only accidents I was familiar with involved cars driving off the road into snow drifts, and I think the delay was more than five minutes. I didn’t think about accidents much longer thanks to a pretty lady wearing what looked like a rain jacket-dress presenting the weather. She smiled at me, told me it was going to be cold (but not too cold) and that there might be some clouds somewhere in the next week. Good to know. Time to get off the train.

Lonely Japan: Alcohol

This is the first part of a special series that I hope will span at least several posts. Some time ago, I asked a friend of mine who had lived in Japan for about a year to write about some of his experiences. I knew he had a number of interesting and colorful stories. He agreed, but asked that I post them anonymously, as he's moved past certain behaviors and doesn't want to be associated with everything that is past. Without further ado, here's part one of Lonely Japan.

-Paul

Lonely Japan
Part 1: Alcohol


The way everyone was talking you’d think it was Siberia cold. Every conversation I overheard involved an abuse of the word “samui” and a discussion of whether it was going to be cold again tomorrow, or how warm their coat was, or whether it was too cold to go to Disneyland. Maybe Japanese people just didn’t have much to talk about. Couldn’t fully understand what they were saying anyway and none of them were talking to me. I wasn’t cold; was already three deep in at that point. The can in my hand was down to the swill so I decided it was time to get off the train.


Don’t remember the name of the station but it was something on the Yamanote-sen, and pretty much every station has what I was looking for: the conbini. Now not every conbini has a very good selection of alcohol. Some are downright terrible. Anything connected to a station or in the shopping mall-like labyrinths connected to them (in my experience, whatever that’s worth) usually had slim pickings. Sometimes you find what I call a  super-conbini” that has an entire wall of alcohol. This was one of those. . .Into the conbini I went and headed straight for the wall of alcohol. First thing to do was to check and see what had the best alcohol to yen ratio. Can’t be drinking 350 yen Ebisu when the night is young and you are a poor exchange student. 500ml Chu-Hai were usually a good bet at around 8% and 250 or so yen, could get close to black out drunk without spending too much. Think I picked two out of the case to make sure I had more than enough.


Girl at the register was probably about 25, but I couldn’t really tell as I was intoxicated and/or I can’t ever really tell. I think our conversation went something like this:


Me: (In Japanese) How are you doing tonight?


Her: (Blank stare) …512 yen please


Me: It’s cold outside tonight right? Good thing my coat is warm.


Her: ...Thank you for coming in!


Me:( While taking my drinks and my change) Thanks for having me.


I wouldn’t want to have talked to me either. Back onto the train I went.


Part 2