Learning to Walk
October 3, 2008
Ok Bob and Chris already know how to walk; but how about walking to the store with a name you don’t know on a street you cannot pronounce using a transportation system you do not understand? Get the point? It is like learning how to walk for the??? time. Anytime you must do something with which you’re not accustomed it is like learning how to walk. Now you may say, "Hey once or twice was enough even if I accept your simile!” The truth is however that each time you learn or relearn how to walk you also approach a new day when you will experience again the exhilaration of running; of feeling the freedom of the wind in your face; of knowing again that God has given you talents you did not even realize you had before; before you tried to learn how to walk for the??? time.
So October 3rd Bob and Chris learned how to walk for the ??? time. You see when you are not a tourist; but a resident alien then you must learn how to live; daily live in your new land where you are the foreigner. The JELC provided housing; but now it was time for Bob and Chris to find food; a place to buy food. So with help from Cindy Otomori as to where to look and with a map of the area; a map of the bus routes; with a newly cash infused card that you pass over a reader to pay for your bus ride in both their hands, off they went. They left the safe confines of the seminary in search of a grocery store; one with food; cheap in cost but good in quality food in Tokyo, Japan.
First they went out of the seminary grounds and down a nameless street in search of the bus stop, the one that had two routes ichi or queju ichi; 1 or 91. The bus stop was Nishino and the route they would take stopped at Mushishisaki Station; the nearest train station. It was six stops down the route. Now they had to first get on the bus; check the number on the bus that stopped at their stop, get out the newly acquired cards; find the machine that you held them over to pay the fare as they boarded the bus and then find a seat among all the eyes staring at the fumbling foreigners; Bob and Chris. Six stops did not mean counting the number of times the bus actually stopped because a bus here does not stop unless a rider makes a request via an electronic signal; funny little boxes with yellow lights next to each seat and on the poles where people stand when the bus is packed; almost all the time. To count six stops they had to listen and view the screen that announced the stops in Japanese and in English and count those. They did. First steps were completed they arrived at the train station.
A train station in Tokyo is a concentration of commerce; stores where the millions who commute to various parts of the city may shop in the midst of the daily sojourn to and from work. Among the stores around our train station was Itoyo Kado; a department store. It was across the street from the Star Bucks and the KFC ! Department stores in Tokyo offer more than the soft goods of American counterparts. They have all that the American stores plus restaurants on the top floor and giant supermarkets on the bottom floors. Thus after Bob and Chris arrived at the train station they went to Itoyo Kado department store in search of groceries. They found groceries most of which looked strange and exotic. They found prepared foods in a department about five times the size of what was their experience back at Publix in Aiken, SC. The food itself was mostly beyond their prior experience; except perhaps for the sushi in a case about thirty feet long!! After a tour of the floor Bob and Chris with heads aching from more choices and more food they did not recognize than ever before, decided to go to the top floor and find a place to eat for dinner.
On the top floor of Itoyo Kado they found four restaurants. Each had a window with plastic models of the food they offered and individual signs showing the cost. Even when you cannot pronounce the food names the models give you the opportunity to ask the waiter to come with you; to point at a model and then wait in wonder to taste what you hope you just ordered. Bob and Chris looked at the windows for each establishment, chose one that seemed affordable and edible; sat down at a table in real chairs; and waited for the waiter. Surprise! The waiter handed over menus with pictures of each food offered; genuine reproductions of the models; pictures just like Shoney’s in Aiken; but the food was not Shoney’s. So now to find the picture that looked almost like a model and that is what they did. The meal was very different; but very good. Many things did not taste like what they appeared to be; but they tasted good in an odd sort of way. Now filled somewhat if not satisfied Bob and Chris resolved to conquer the grocery department back on the bottom floor of Itoyo Kado.
It took another hour or so to resurvey the store or the floor with the groceries all the while wondering just how strange they appeared to the Japanese patrons. Finally after another hour of looking, picking up and trying to find any English on a label, of viewing strange and wondrous fresh fish, fruits and vegetables and speculating on what they might be and how they might be cooked, the first shopping for food adventure was over. Two small hand baskets of food; enough for maybe two days of meals had been selected. About $67 later after their credit card was rejected and cash was substituted Bob and Chris left the store; satisfied and tired. Now it was dark in the early evening and the attempt to return home began.
Thankfully the bus stop though not the same one where the 1st bus had stopped was easy to find. It was right were Cindy Otomori had showed them earlier in the day! So Bob and Chris waited for the bus; got on the first Ichi that stopped, swiped those new cards one more time, counted six stops or six potential stops, pressed the “let me off” button when they heard the announcement for Nishino, got off and turned in the direction of the seminary made a little more difficult for it was now totally dark, and found the seminary and their apartment! Tired, no exhausted from the exercise of trying to buy groceries; from the attempt to learn to walk they stepped in the apartment; took some aspirin and went to bed! Learning to walk is hard; requires effort; but it was worth it!! Tomorrow they try to find the headquarters of the JELC in the middle of Tokyo!
Keep on Praying
Zen Ben
October 3, 2008
Ok Bob and Chris already know how to walk; but how about walking to the store with a name you don’t know on a street you cannot pronounce using a transportation system you do not understand? Get the point? It is like learning how to walk for the??? time. Anytime you must do something with which you’re not accustomed it is like learning how to walk. Now you may say, "Hey once or twice was enough even if I accept your simile!” The truth is however that each time you learn or relearn how to walk you also approach a new day when you will experience again the exhilaration of running; of feeling the freedom of the wind in your face; of knowing again that God has given you talents you did not even realize you had before; before you tried to learn how to walk for the??? time.
So October 3rd Bob and Chris learned how to walk for the ??? time. You see when you are not a tourist; but a resident alien then you must learn how to live; daily live in your new land where you are the foreigner. The JELC provided housing; but now it was time for Bob and Chris to find food; a place to buy food. So with help from Cindy Otomori as to where to look and with a map of the area; a map of the bus routes; with a newly cash infused card that you pass over a reader to pay for your bus ride in both their hands, off they went. They left the safe confines of the seminary in search of a grocery store; one with food; cheap in cost but good in quality food in Tokyo, Japan.
First they went out of the seminary grounds and down a nameless street in search of the bus stop, the one that had two routes ichi or queju ichi; 1 or 91. The bus stop was Nishino and the route they would take stopped at Mushishisaki Station; the nearest train station. It was six stops down the route. Now they had to first get on the bus; check the number on the bus that stopped at their stop, get out the newly acquired cards; find the machine that you held them over to pay the fare as they boarded the bus and then find a seat among all the eyes staring at the fumbling foreigners; Bob and Chris. Six stops did not mean counting the number of times the bus actually stopped because a bus here does not stop unless a rider makes a request via an electronic signal; funny little boxes with yellow lights next to each seat and on the poles where people stand when the bus is packed; almost all the time. To count six stops they had to listen and view the screen that announced the stops in Japanese and in English and count those. They did. First steps were completed they arrived at the train station.
A train station in Tokyo is a concentration of commerce; stores where the millions who commute to various parts of the city may shop in the midst of the daily sojourn to and from work. Among the stores around our train station was Itoyo Kado; a department store. It was across the street from the Star Bucks and the KFC ! Department stores in Tokyo offer more than the soft goods of American counterparts. They have all that the American stores plus restaurants on the top floor and giant supermarkets on the bottom floors. Thus after Bob and Chris arrived at the train station they went to Itoyo Kado department store in search of groceries. They found groceries most of which looked strange and exotic. They found prepared foods in a department about five times the size of what was their experience back at Publix in Aiken, SC. The food itself was mostly beyond their prior experience; except perhaps for the sushi in a case about thirty feet long!! After a tour of the floor Bob and Chris with heads aching from more choices and more food they did not recognize than ever before, decided to go to the top floor and find a place to eat for dinner.
On the top floor of Itoyo Kado they found four restaurants. Each had a window with plastic models of the food they offered and individual signs showing the cost. Even when you cannot pronounce the food names the models give you the opportunity to ask the waiter to come with you; to point at a model and then wait in wonder to taste what you hope you just ordered. Bob and Chris looked at the windows for each establishment, chose one that seemed affordable and edible; sat down at a table in real chairs; and waited for the waiter. Surprise! The waiter handed over menus with pictures of each food offered; genuine reproductions of the models; pictures just like Shoney’s in Aiken; but the food was not Shoney’s. So now to find the picture that looked almost like a model and that is what they did. The meal was very different; but very good. Many things did not taste like what they appeared to be; but they tasted good in an odd sort of way. Now filled somewhat if not satisfied Bob and Chris resolved to conquer the grocery department back on the bottom floor of Itoyo Kado.
It took another hour or so to resurvey the store or the floor with the groceries all the while wondering just how strange they appeared to the Japanese patrons. Finally after another hour of looking, picking up and trying to find any English on a label, of viewing strange and wondrous fresh fish, fruits and vegetables and speculating on what they might be and how they might be cooked, the first shopping for food adventure was over. Two small hand baskets of food; enough for maybe two days of meals had been selected. About $67 later after their credit card was rejected and cash was substituted Bob and Chris left the store; satisfied and tired. Now it was dark in the early evening and the attempt to return home began.
Thankfully the bus stop though not the same one where the 1st bus had stopped was easy to find. It was right were Cindy Otomori had showed them earlier in the day! So Bob and Chris waited for the bus; got on the first Ichi that stopped, swiped those new cards one more time, counted six stops or six potential stops, pressed the “let me off” button when they heard the announcement for Nishino, got off and turned in the direction of the seminary made a little more difficult for it was now totally dark, and found the seminary and their apartment! Tired, no exhausted from the exercise of trying to buy groceries; from the attempt to learn to walk they stepped in the apartment; took some aspirin and went to bed! Learning to walk is hard; requires effort; but it was worth it!! Tomorrow they try to find the headquarters of the JELC in the middle of Tokyo!
Keep on Praying
Zen Ben
1 comment:
What an adventure! We're praying for you!
Ann Mappus sends her greetings and love. She says to let you know that you are being missed!
We're impressed that you can spell the Japanese names!
Post a Comment