Lunch on the Town

8/4/09

Today’s course of events was a bit unexpected. I was lazing about the house after breakfast and Andy had left and I heard the doorbell ring. It was about 11:00 or so and I wasn’t expecting anyone. I was still in my PJ’s and un-showered, so I prayed it was not a Japanese person that would witness my unkempt state. It was Erin, the previous tenant of our apartment and Andy’s predecessor ALT. Andy had mentioned that she might come by to take out some of the trash she’d left in our storage shed and also to remove the unsightly exercise bike from our living room. As much as Andy had described her to me, I could not have gotten the full picture of Erin without having met her. She is quite something. Nice as can be, no doubt... She’s from Colorado and has been in Japan for the last 4 years. After she arrived I accompanied her to the neighborhood trash drop where we deposited 3 bags of recyclables. Erin informed me that recyclables are only picked up on Wednesdays - recyclables being cardboard and plastic bottles and aluminum cans that have been rinsed, and whose labels and caps have been removed. All other trash is collected on Tuesdays and Fridays and is ultimately burned. I assume this burning of trash is responsible the steady stream of thick white smoke emitting from a nearby smoke stack that I can see out my upstairs window. This may also have something to do with the ever-present haze on the horizon that veils our elusive ocean view.

Once we’ve dropped the 3 bags at the local drop spot (3 bags is a bit scandalous since we’re really only allowed two per week), Erin mentions that she might be grabbing lunch downtown with her former Japanese teacher and that I’d be welcome to join them. I eagerly oblige since my day’s forecast consists of laundry, errands, and biding my time until Andy gets home from work. Erin agrees to call me when she finds out the plan.

An hour or so later the phone rings and Erin assures me that plans for lunch are a go. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to get out of the house, so I happily agree to come. She picks me up in her maroon 4WD manual Honda Civic, the car she offered to sell to me and Andy for a steal, but that we declined. We were hoping we wouldn’t need a car at all in Japan, but we’ve found out pretty quickly that we will need to purchase one if we care to go anywhere beyond our immediate area, especially in the winter. Although public transportation is readily available here, it is often not as practical as one might expect. A bus trip to the beach, for example, is said to take over an hour, when a car ride to the same location is 10-15 minutes. I am reminded that no one takes the bus in Southern California for the same reasons.

As Erin drives downtown we chat about our impressions of Japan and she provides insight on her experiences as a four-year veteran of the JET Program. She admits that when she arrived in Japan she was overwhelmed by excitement but that that excitement died down after about a month and she then went through a short period of disappointment and depression. I wonder if that will happen to me.

We park and walk a couple of blocks downtown before we see a Japanese woman waving from across the street. Erin gets excited as she approaches; this is her Japanese teacher, Satchiko. Satchiko introduces herself to me and then leads us to the lunch spot. We enter a hallway that appears to be the entrance to a real estate office, but as we continue down the hall I hear the clink of glasses and smell the aroma of food. Sure enough, upon entering a door on our right we happen upon a cute little café called Pizzeria Corte. This place is adorable. I couldn’t have picked better décor for my own place; the furnishings have a retro modern flair and there’s a little outdoor patio in the back with some modern hanging wicker chairs. The menu consists of Italian-style gourmet pizzas and pastas. There’s also a coffee drink menu. I think I’ve found a little slice of comfort in Hachinohe already!

After lunch and another hour or so with Erin I can see why she has stayed in Japan for the last four years. At lunch, her spotty Japanese and little anecdotes about teaching and all her gaijin (a Japanese term used for foreigners) experiences in Hachinohe continually amuse Satchiko and her friends. Everything Erin says is greeted with a smile and a laugh. She is the center of attention wherever she goes. I start to realize that it is going to be a big adjustment for her when she goes back to the US. Reverse culture shock will likely come in the form of very few people finding her as funny and charming as do her Japanese colleagues. Her stories about and comparisons to Japan and all things Japanese will wear on the nerves of her American acquaintances much more quickly than she probably expects. The novelty of her 4 years of life in Japan will wear off soon enough, and then she will be left to fend for herself, having missed out on her own mid-twenties American experience in favor of the comfort offered by her life as a semi-celebrity in Hachinohe. I am apt to wonder if she didn’t miss out on some important life lessons in the meantime. I ponder the reasons why she chose this form of escapism during what would likely have been some of the most exciting yet challenging years of her American life.