M-chan and S-chan met up near me and then I joined them for lunch in Kita-Senju. We sat for a time over our tempura and hot tea before continuing on to Korea Town, where we explored the wonders of Shop QQ. Neither S-chan or M-chan had been to a QQ before--though S-chan has seen the commercials on TV--and they were green with envy when I told them that there was a QQ near my station.
Here, M-chan re-Chapsticks his envious lips in the frozen food section of the Shin-Okuba Shop QQ
S-chan bought some breakfast cereal and M-chan bought a chocolate bar and then we headed up the street to meet B-chan and Y-chan for dinner at a Korean BBQ place in Shin-Okuba, one station away from Shinjuku. After dinner, we headed to Takodanababa (I'm sure I'm not spelling that right!) for drinks and dessert.
Here are the boys on the Yamanote Line train platform. (It's damn cold in Tokyo tonight, by the way.)
Over drinks, M-chan noted that I've been more social now, after five months in Japan than I was during training, when our training group was dubbed "The Touchy Feely Group" by The Trainers. I wanted to tell M-chan that, honto, I'm not a very social person anyway, but also that when I first got to Japan, I was in shock. M-chan grew up all over the world, has traveled, been everywhere and done everything, but I came from New Mexico, where I had lived all my life among the same people in a culture and climate that I knew like the back of my hand. Moving to Japan was unreal and The Brain was in shock and when I am frightened or uncertain, my tendency is not to find someone to commiserate with, but to withdraw into a protective shell. Oh, I'm friendly enough perhaps, but stand-offish, and I think this did not set me off on the right foot with the others in my training group. And, too, they're all twenty-something, and I came to Japan in my thirties, so even though it is still perfectly acceptable for them all to be wild club kids, it's less attractive when a thirty-three (then) woman indulges in the same activities. Honesly, it's not that I feel old, it's just that I've got a touch of been there, done that when it comes to the drinking away my paycheck and staying out all night.
Too, early on, I had some idea that Japan was going to require something of me that I needed to harbor my strength for. I didn't know what that something might be, only that I had to hold something of myself in reserve to meet the challenges that I was going to face. I couldn't fritter away my limited supply of energy on song, dance, drink, or confession to strangers. (And we were all strangers back then.)
So no I wasn't social then, but I'm trying now in my own limited way to make up for that.
After dinner, I called it a night and we all parted ways at various stations. I rode the Yamanote as far as Ueno with S-chan and had time to snap this picture of the new poster for the Muppets' Mind Your Manners In Japan Campaign. (Or whatever it's called.)
Cookie Monster is reminded to mind his manners on the train. "Watch your manners on the train!" The copy above his head reads, "The smell might be irresistible, but that's no excuse!"
No comments:
Post a Comment