I had an “artificial” long weekend this time, and I made the most of it. Friday I followed a carefully orchestrated plan to run some errands at the city office, get a complete physical examination at the doctor’s office, and send out three packages at the post office. As it worked out, I finished everything before noon, so I had the afternoon to relax and use the pressure cooker to make pulled pork for sandwiches.
The city office went very smoothly. There was a big line for the department that I was inquiring about, and so they had distributed numbers. I took number 14 and sat down to wait for my turn. I was surrounded by other folks waiting around as well. Seemed like a normal bunch – although one guy smelled a little rank. The guy called off numbers, and when he called out for number 10, nobody answered.
This caused a big scene.
For some reason, they couldn’t believe that nobody would answer – so they spent about five minutes calling out number 10 again and again. After the continuous calling, I looked over and realized the guy calling the numbers was looking directly at me while he called. Then I looked around and saw that everyone else was looking at me, too. I knew quite well that I was holding number 14 – I didn’t even dignify their stares with a glance at my card. I just looked back. But it was clear that everyone figured that since I was foreign I had no idea what number was being called. What’s more, I think a few people looked kind of pissed because I was holding everything up.
But I wasn’t holding anything up. I has holding number 14.
Finally, the guy came over to me, and changing to English, said “Ten?” I just held up my card with the number 14 written on it in bold, and he bowed his head and went back. I looked back at the people around me and suddenly I wasn’t so interesting anymore. Jesus Christ!
Number 10 never showed up, so I got my business taken care of and I was back out and headed back to Okubo. The post office went pretty easily. An old lady tried to cut in front of me in line, but I’m so used to that now that it doesn’t bother me at all. When she cut in front I took two giant steps out of line to the left so that everyone could see that I was no longer at the front of the line. Once the old lady got her stamps I moved up and took care of everything pretty quickly.
At the doctor’s office I signed up for a physical, and I was a big hit with the nurses. At first they assumed that I spoke no Japanese, and so I was able to overhear some interesting conversations. The physical took about 90 minutes, and at the end of it I got a clean bill of health and was set free to go eat something for the first time that day.
Back home I cooked some pork in a pressure cooker with some beer and BBQ sauce (thank you Costco), and it turned out to be a pretty good pulled pork dish. For the rest of the weekend Kuniko and I were eating pulled pork sandwiches, and they really hit the spot.
Sunday the rainy season officially hit, and we were confined to our home for most of the day while it came down in torrents outside. Luckily we had enough wine and pasta to survive.
Now this week it is back to my regular schedule, with a big taco party at the end of the week. Should be fun!
