Chapter 17: CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Reads: 611

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Route 55 from Muroto City up to Kochi City, the capital of Kochi prefecture did go along the coastline in places but the seascapes I could glimpse here and there were not as dynamic as those from Tokushima south to Muroto-misaki.

“Maybe I'm just getting too used to these seascapes, huh little buddy?”

Beeep!

I found a fairly good minshuku in Kochi. And because it hadn't taken as long as getting to Muroto City, I decided to stay sudomari again so I could eat out at one of the local restaurants.

Kochi was the largest city I had come to in Shikoku so far but still far smaller than any of the cities in the Kansai area. The downtown area stretched for some four or five blocks and was crammed with all sorts of eating places.

I chose one of the seafood restaurants that looked particularly inviting. Again it was mainly a large U shaped counter with a few tables on the side.

When the cook came I naturally ordered the suzuki.

“Fried, broiled or steamed?”

“Steamed!”

“That'll take about fifteen minutes.”

“That's fine. And could you bring me a bottle of your local sake while I'm waiting?”

“Coming up!”

Again the sake had a tangy flavor but was different from the sake in Muroto City. I drank it slowly while I waited for my suzuki and watched with interest as the cook brought out the orders of fish and other dishes on a shovel-like wooden paddle that had a flat end for the dish and an extra long handle that let him place the orders in front of the other guests that were beginning to fill up the seats at the counter.

Just as my fifteen minutes were about up, a group of four businessmen banged their way in and slammed themselves down on the four seats right next to me that were the only ones left at the counter. Businessmen from the same company, I guessed, doing their after work “work”.

The cook came out with a suzuki on his paddle and placed it in front of me.

“Ah, just what I wanted!” exclaimed the businessman seated next to me and grabbed the suzuki off the paddle before I could.

“Hey! That's mine! I've waited fifteen minutes for that!”

The businessman glared at me. But the cook nodded that I was right and I grabbed the suzuki back.

The businessman glowered me a you goddamn gaijin!

I ordered another bottle of sake to help me ignore him.

When the businessman wasn't glowering at me, he and his coworkers were yak, Yak, YAKKING with each other as if they were the only customers in the restaurant, annoying not only me but obviously many of the others that were seated around the counter including a few other businessmen but who were only by themselves or in pairs.

I had noticed this before when I went out drinking with John. The Japanese customers seated by themselves or in pairs were usually quiet and polite. But those in groups of four or more, particularly businessmen like the ones who made up the majority of our students, tended to become oblivious to everyone else and yakked away as loudly as they pleased.

My suzuki smelled delicious. But the businessmen were making so much noise, I couldn't really enjoy it.

On my way back to my minshuku I passed a liquor shop. It was already closed, its front shutter pulled all the way down. But the ubiquitous vending machines in front of it were still lit up of course. One was for soft drinks. But the other was vending canned beer, sake in small cups, and even small bottles of whiskey. It had the small obligatory notice that only people twenty or older -- the legal drinking age -- could use it. But even a child of five could put coins in the slot and buy whatever he wanted without anyone noticing, let alone middle and high school students. I jammed some coins into the slot and bought two bottles of the cup sake. They were all national brands and I would have to drink them cold from the plastic cups they came in. But I needed something to wash the bad taste of those businessmen out of my brain.

While I was drinking them in my room, I thought of a rather advanced student I taught who was also a businessman.

“How many hours do you have to work a day?”

“About twelve or thirteen.”

“That many?”

“Yes. Eight or nine hours at the office and three or four out drinking with my coworkers.”

“Don't you get tired?”

“Oh yes. I get very tired”

“Then why don't you just go home when you're finished at the office?”

“Because then I wouldn't be able to get the latest gossip from my coworkers and that would hurt my career.”

And that's how I learned about Japanese businessmen's habit of “working” after they finished their work at the office.

I'm sure Kochi has many interesting areas and sights, but those damn businessmen had spoiled my stay in this city and I just wanted to get out of it and on my way to the other half of Shikoku that I hadn't seen yet. And tomorrow I was going to make it to Ashizuri-misaki, the cape that formed the southernmost tip of Shikoku Island.

Submitted: March 15, 2022

Romance romance japan gaijin travel-in-japan japan-1970s