For the first few months since I moved into my neighborhood, I’d pass by Yamaya daily, but never went in because, it’s a liquor store, so they have nothing for me there. Then one day, on a quest for a bottle of melon soda, I stepped in and discovered that it had two entire aisles dedicated to food. One was mostly chips, nuts, candy, dried fish and rice snacks. The other, had all sorts of imported products from other Asian countries and Europe such as Indian curry, Thai guava juice, French cheese, Korean ssamjang, Spanish olives, Italian pastas, spices, and assorted canned goods. All at great prices. They didn’t have the melon soda I’d gone there looking for, but I found much more important stuff there. I began making regular stops there on my weekly trips to the larger supermarkets.
Fast forward
to today. Although I’m home most of the
time, and can wash my hands with soap and hot water, I want some hand sanitizer
to carry in my backpack for times when that’s not possible. Like last week when
I used the toilet at Honjo Station and there was no soap at the sinks. No, they hadn’t run out. Some public toilets simply have no soap. And the water is always cold. Ugh! A
little 200 milliliter pump of hand sanitizer costs upward of 700 yen, even at
the discount store. No problem. I’ll
make some. There are hundreds of recipes online for making your own hand
sanitizer gel or spray. Even the Centers
for Disease Control website posted a recipe.
So I went on a quest to find alcohol, which is one of the main
ingredients.
One liter of
rubbing alcohol goes for ¥1980 at Sugi pharmacy. Daiso, the ¥100 shop, has none. Yaoko and Belc supermarket prices are similar
to those at the pharmacy. So I decide to
go for the next best thing. The do-it-yourself
recipes suggest a high-proof alcohol like vodka as an alternative to rubbing
alcohol. I go to Yamaya and find the
vodka section. I know absolutely nothing
about vodka except that it originated in Russia. (The only other time I’ve bought a bottle of
alcohol was in Korea when I hosted the Kwanzaa celebration, and needed a bottle
of soju to pour libations.) I reach for
the one in the pretty amethyst blue bottle.
Then I notice the princes ranging from ¥800 to ¥3500. I put it back and grab the cheapest bottle
(which is still much cheaper than the pharmacy’s alcohol). I pick up a can of garbanzos (for tomorrow’s
curry) and a box of Belgian tea cookies.
As I head
toward the register at the front, something catches my eye. A black man!
I very seldom see anyone black people around here. Downton, once in a
while, but here, no. He must have felt
my brown presence (or maybe it was my bright orange dress) because, right at that
moment, he looked up. I bowed to him, and he smiled and bowed back. He was handsome, dressed business casual, and
sported a cleanly shaved head. I turned
down an aisle and thought, “That looks like Fumiko’s husband!” She is the secretary of my former boss, who
is married to a Black British man. I
hadn’t seen him in almost three years, so I couldn’t be sure. I don’t remember him having a mustache,
though. Has he been working out? I don’t remember him having such a nice build,
either.
Maybe it IS
him. Fumiko lives in my same city, so it
very well could be him. “Shit!
Shit! SHIT!” I’ve shopped at Yamaya countless times, and the
one day I go in to purchase liquor, I run into someone who knows that I don’t
drink for religious reasons. And here I
am holding a big-ass 700 ml bottle of vodka looking like a right
hypocrite. Nobody would guess my reason
for purchasing it. I try to stall so that he can go to the register first, but
I’m lousy at that. There’s nothing to browse at. Besides, I’m usually an in-and-out type of
shopper. It’s not so much that I don’t
want him to think I’m a drinker, I’m more concerned that he’ll think I’m a
liar, and therefore, a bad Christian. There
are more than enough dishonest ones around, I’m doing my best to be a good one,
not perfect, but at least be a little better today than I was yesterday.
Finally, I
just go up to the cashier to pay. If I
hang around the store too long, I’ll start looking suspicious in a different
way. While I pay for my items, I see him
walk out of the door followed by a thin, short-haired Japanese woman. Hold up!
Fumiko is chubby and has shoulder-length hair. Who’s he hanging out with at the liquor
store?? You know what? It’s none of my business.
And yes, I
don’t drink alcohol, but I do cuss on occasion.
Because (choose one)
(a) …like I said, I’m not perfect.
(b) …I’m grown.
(c) …I can.
(d) …you can run and tell that, but who would
care?
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