Mismatch (11 page)

She put on her shoes and stepped outside. She was immediately hit by a blast of heat, and almost changed her mind and went back in.
Better get used to it, I guess. It’s
not getting any cooler.

She opened the gate and walked out into the street. Down the block she found Mr. Chong’s convenience store. She went inside and was greeted with a big smile by Mr. Chong. “So you found my place! I’m so sorry that my wife and I can’t take you around sightseeing.”

“That’s all right,” said Sue. “I think looking around the neighborhood is just as much fun.”

“So what do you think of this place?” asked Mr. Chong. “Is it very different from an American convenience store?”

“Well, your store is much bigger,” said Sue, looking around. The convenience stores she knew back home were mostly attached to gas stations. What impressed Sue were the big stacks of boxes containing prepared meals. “These packaged meals look a lot fancier than the frozen TV dinners we get in America,” Sue told Mr. Chong.

“Some of my customers come here every night,” said Mr. Chong. “They pick up their dinner on their way home from work.”

“I guess in America, you drop into a supermarket on your way home from work,” said Sue.

“That’s because most Americans drive,” said Mr. Chong. “Very few people drive in Tokyo, so having a convenience store near your house is very helpful.”

Mr. Chong was right, thought Sue. It was late afternoon, and the store was full of people buying their evening meals. Mr. Chong chatted and joked with his customers, clearly enjoying himself.

After a few minutes, Sue left the store and walked around, looking at the small shops nearby. It felt very different from visiting the famous sites in Kamakura. She was looking at an ordinary Japanese neighborhood, with normal people going about their business. At first, because of all the Asian faces around her, the neighborhood reminded her of Chinatown in Seattle.

She passed lots of vending machines on the sidewalk. They sold coffee, both hot and iced, as well as all sorts of teas. She saw soft drinks, familiar and unfamiliar. One was called—no kidding—Pocari Sweat! But what really surprised her was a machine selling liquor, hard liquor. A toddler could put some coins in and walk off with a big bottle of whiskey.
I guess underage drinking must not be
as big a problem in Japan as it is in the States.

She looked into a store renting videos, and the pictures of movie stars she recognized from Hollywood made her feel at home. Then she saw that the titles were all in Japanese. At a magazine store, she was glad to see familiar covers such as
Time
and
Newsweek
. But here, too, the writing was all in Japanese. That was when Sue began to feel very much like a foreigner. Did Andy also feel like a foreigner, or did he feel more at home here? It suddenly became important for Sue to know.

Then she had an idea.
Tomorrow is Sunday, and we have
the whole day free. Maybe Andy and I can go around Tokyo, just
the two of us!

Returning to the Chong residence, Sue immediately called Andy. “Tomorrow Mr. and Mrs. Chong are both busy again. Mr. Chong runs a convenience store that stays open on Sundays, and Mrs. Chong will still be giving music lessons.”

“Must be boring for you,” said Andy. “I’m sitting around watching TV. You know what? They don’t have English subtitles!”

Sue laughed at the indignation in Andy’s voice. “I took a little walk by myself,” she told him, “and it was fun. So why don’t the two of us go around Tokyo together tomorrow? We don’t have to do anything special, just look around, maybe window-shop, whatever . . .”

“Yeah, let’s do that!” cried Andy. Sue could tell he was excited. “There’s no rule that says we have to go around with our host families!”

“Maybe we can even find a deli like Hero’s where we can hang out,” said Sue.

“We’ll manage!” said Andy. “I can speak a little bit of Japanese, and you can read some of the signs, the ones written in Chinese characters.”

“Great!” said Sue. “I’ll ask Mrs. Chong to show me how to get to the Satos’ tomorrow morning, and we’ll go on from there!”

She could hardly wait for tomorrow.

11

O
n Sunday morning, Mrs. Chong insisted on bringing Sue to the Satos’ house rather than letting her take her chances alone. The two of them had to take both the subway and a bus. When they got off at the bus stop, Sue could tell immediately that the Satos’ house was in a much fancier neighborhood than the Chongs’. The houses were much farther apart, and hidden by tall fences. Walking in the street, Sue felt as if she was being shut out of the lives of the inhabitants.
In America, only
rich celebrities cut themselves off like this.

When Mrs. Chong rang the bell at the gate, Sue began to worry, remembering what Mrs. Chong had told her about the treatment of Koreans by native Japanese. She would never forgive herself if Mrs. Chong was treated rudely. But it was too late to do anything. The gate opened, and a petite, pretty, middle-aged Japanese woman greeted them.

From Mrs. Chong’s greeting, Sue guessed that this was Mrs. Sato. And as far as she could tell from the polite bows on both sides, their reception was friendly enough. She felt the tension drain from her shoulders. Things were even better when they stepped into the house—removing her shoes had become automatic by now for Sue—and were greeted by Mr. Sato.

To Sue’s relief, he addressed them in English. “Ah, Mrs. Chong! So good to see you. I heard your daughter play last year and was very impressed. She has graduated, yes?”

“Yes, and she is now attending the Toho School of Music,” Mrs. Chong said.

“You must be very proud!” said Mr. Sato. His voice sounded wistful.

“Haruko is still not interested in playing an instrument?” Mrs. Chong asked.

“I’m afraid not,” said Mr. Sato. “Maybe she can marry a musician, and then we can adopt him into the family.”

Sue’s mouth dropped open, and she had to force herself to politely shut it.
Haruko can marry a musician? Wow,
does he have any particular musician in mind?
Sue couldn’t tell whether he was serious or not, but it was clear that Mr. Sato had a deep love of music.
He’s being really nice to
Mrs. Chong
.
That shows that a person’s ancestry doesn’t make a
di ference to him when it comes to music.

“Hey, Sue,” said Andy’s voice. He appeared in the entryway, carrying his backpack and a guidebook. “All set to go see the sights of Tokyo?”

“I sure am. Andy, this is my hostess, Mrs. Chong. Mrs. Chong, this is my boyfriend, Andy.” Sue stepped back and smiled as Andy and Mrs. Chong exchanged a handshake and polite greetings. After thanking Mr. and Mrs. Sato for taking care of Sue, Mrs. Chong bowed and left.

“All set?” Sue asked Andy.

“We have to wait for Haruko,” said Andy. “She’s coming with us.”

Sue’s heart sank. She had been so looking forward to some time alone with Andy! “But we can manage on our own!” she protested.

“Haruko is hostess,” insisted Mrs. Sato. “It is her duty to go with you.”

“I’m sure Haruko has more important things to do,” said Sue politely, still not giving up.

“There is nothing more important than showing her guest famous Tokyo sights,” said Mrs. Sato.

“Haruko can’t be happy about this,” Sue whispered to Andy. “If she’s already rude to you, imagine what she’ll be like when she learns she has to entertain you and your dorky girlfriend. She’s going to throw a fit when she sees me.”

Andy bent his head to inspect his digital camera. “It’s no use. I already tried talking to them.”

Fortunately, Haruko didn’t keep them waiting too long. Just a couple of minutes later, she shuffled over to the entryway, munching on a piece of toast. Her expression when she saw Sue was pleasant enough. “Good morning. So you’re coming with us?”

Sue blinked. “Uh, yeah. I hope you don’t mind having me along, too.”

“No, of course not,” said Haruko. She didn’t look at all angry. “Ready to go?”

By the time they hit the streets, it was already hot. Seeing Haruko put on a small canvas hat, Sue decided that one of the first things she wanted to do was buy a hat for herself. “Can we go to a department store?” she asked.

Haruko’s face brightened. “Of course! I take you to my favorite store!”

Sue glanced at Andy and saw that he didn’t exactly look psyched about going to a department store. “Isn’t it nice that Haruko’s in a good mood, at least?” she whispered to him. He just grunted.

The bus they had to take was crowded, even though it was Sunday. “That’s when stores are busiest,” Haruko told Sue. “Schools, banks, and government offices are all closed, so everybody’s shopping.”

After the bus, they got on a train, which was less crowded. As the train started, Sue looked around at the other passengers. When she had come into Tokyo from the airport with the Chongs, she had been too tired to notice much.

Many of the seated passengers were typing into their cell phones. “Why do they do that?” Sue asked Haruko.

“In trains we have to use our cell phones silently,” explained Haruko. “It’s called the manner mode, because it’s rude to talk into your cell phone in a crowded train.”

“Wow,” Sue muttered to Andy. “Wish we had rules like that back home.” She felt a touch on her arm.

“We get off at the next stop,” said Haruko.

It was a good thing Haruko gave them plenty of warning, because it took an effort to push their way to the door through the crowd.

They followed Haruko up some stairs. Sue saw lines on the ground with bumps on them. “What are those for?” she asked Haruko.

“They’re for blind people to feel their way,” said Haruko. “So they know where they’re going.”

Outside the train station they were hit by a blast of hot air, but by then Sue was getting used to the weather. They went down a crowded sidewalk, and Sue would have liked to take some time to window-shop. But Haruko kept them marching on.

On the sidewalk, Sue again saw yellow strips with bumps on them to guide the blind. At a busy intersection, she heard music. When the light changed, she heard a different tune. She looked at Andy and saw that he had noticed it, too.

“I’ve been to cities where you only get a beep when the light changes to guide the blind,” said Andy. “Light signals with songs are better!”

“Here!” cried Haruko. “In here!”

Sue and Andy followed her through revolving doors and found themselves in blessed air-conditioning. To Sue, the interior didn’t look all that different from that of an American department store. The lighting, the counters, and even the merchandise looked similar. One difference was a young woman in uniform standing at the foot of the escalator, bowing and greeting all the customers.

“Hats on third floor,” Haruko said.

They took the escalator to the third floor, where hats, gloves, scarves, and other accessories were. Sue looked at some of the prices and shuddered. There was no way she could afford this stuff. Did Haruko think all Americans were rich?

The hat department had a huge selection, but after looking at the prices, Sue settled on the simplest one she could find, a khaki canvas hat with a narrow brim.

“Why don’t we go to the top of the store and then work our way down, one floor at a time,” suggested Haruko.

Sue glanced at Andy. She knew he wasn’t exactly a shopaholic, so this wasn’t much fun for him.

“A quick pass through,” Andy agreed. “Sure. But let’s not spend all day here. We can shop in Seattle.”

“Can we at least look at traditional Japanese clothes, like kimonos and stuff?” Sue asked. “That’s something we won’t see in Seattle.”

“All right, if you really want to,” said Haruko. She sounded less than enthusiastic.

They traveled to a floor with kimonos and all their accessories. These included special underwear, and narrow sashes that were invisible from the outside but were needed to hold things in place. Just the footwear that went with the kimono needed a whole department to itself.

Sue looked at the prices. She converted to dollars and nearly choked when she discovered that a whole outfit would cost many thousands of dollars. “Do you wear a kimono often?” she asked Haruko.

“Only once or twice a year,” said Haruko. “On New Year’s Day, I wear a kimono and go with my parents to a shrine. But it’s such a pain! It takes hours to get dressed in a kimono!”

Sue looked at all the shiny silk. Some kimonos had gold or silver threads woven into them. “They’re gorgeous,” she murmured. For a moment, she felt envious.

“Don’t you wear Chinese clothes?” asked Haruko. “Some of them are beautiful! I’ve seen cheongsams with gorgeous embroidery.”

Sue glanced at Haruko. When the Japanese girl didn’t have her usual sullen expression, she wasn’t bad-looking at all. She had neat, dark brows above eyes that were now bright and interested. Sue realized that Haruko didn’t seem to feel the prejudice against the Chinese that Mrs. Chong had talked about. In fact, Haruko was a lot more friendly to
her
than to Andy.

“No, I don’t get to wear a cheongsam,” Sue told Haruko. “My grandmother gave me one, but I outgrew it a long time ago. The cheongsam is a tight fit, not like a kimono.”

Andy was fidgeting and shuffling his feet. “Come on, let’s keep going. I’ve had enough of kimonos.”

Sue grinned at him. “I thought you’d be interested in your roots. Don’t you want to see how your grandmother dressed?”

“Both my grandmothers are Japanese Americans,” said Andy, “and I don’t remember ever seeing them wear kimonos.”

They went down one floor and found themselves in the gift department. “In August and at New Year, you always buy a gift for your boss,” Haruko explained. “So you come here, tell them how much you want to spend, and they send the gift for you. Do you have something like that in America?”

Sue thought about gifts. “Well, when somebody you know is getting married, you go to a store and ask whether your friend has registered, and if they have, you get a whole list of things they’ve said they want so you’ll know exactly what to give them.”

“What a weird system!” cried Haruko.

Sue remembered something Mrs. Chong had mentioned. “Is it true that Japanese parents sometimes hire detectives to investigate their children’s friends, to see if they’re fit for their son or daughter to marry?”

Haruko hesitated. She flicked a glance at Andy before replying. “Well, some old-fashioned parents like to look over their children’s future husband or wife.” What Haruko did not say was whether her own parents were old-fashioned.

Sue saw that Andy was drifting away again, so they hurried through the next few floors. At last they arrived at the lowest floor, the basement food department, and Andy brightened up. A bunch of counters had free samples, so they helped themselves to bite-sized pieces of pastry, pickled eggplant, smoked fish . . . plus things Sue had never seen before. Some of the samples were delicious, and Sue sneaked back to take another piece. Some were very strange.

“Okay, we’ve seen every single floor,” said Andy, after they had made the rounds. “Let’s go somewhere interesting. What do kids do for fun?”

Haruko thought a bit. “How about going to an arcade?”

“Okay, video games, then,” said Andy. “Let’s go!”

Haruko took them to an arcade, and Sue saw that many of the games didn’t look that different from the ones back home. Andy walked over to one and immediately started shooting down enemy aliens.

Sue found the game boring and glanced at Haruko. She was staring straight at Andy. Suddenly Sue wondered whether Andy was trying to impress Haruko. She remembered what Andy had written on the wooden plaque at the shrine in Kamakura.

Is Andy trying to impress Haruko because she’s cold to him?
Maybe he likes the challenge?

Sue knew she was being unreasonable—Haruko lived thousands of miles away from Andy, and she knew Andy didn’t like her much as a person. Still, something rankled about the way Andy tried so hard to gain Haruko’s respect. Sue turned away.

Soon Andy was done and he looked at other games. There was one that Sue had seen in America where the player had to dance according to the rhythm and choreography dictated by the machine. If he got out of step, a loud beep sounded.

“This looks like fun,” said Andy.

The music started. Watching Andy keeping up with the flashing video game, Sue suddenly realized that they had never danced together. He was good! His shoulders moved in the sexy way she’d first noticed during her audition at the Lakeview auditorium. Sue wished desperately that the two of them could go someplace where they could really dance,
without
Haruko.

There was a loud beep. Andy laughed and stopped dancing. “Good thing Mr. Baxter doesn’t make that noise when I play the wrong note.”

Andy turned to another game, but it had a line of customers waiting. In fact, there were people waiting to play at most of the machines.

Sue had had enough of the game arcade. “We might as well be doing this back home.”

When they emerged blinking from the dark arcade into the too-bright street, they found that it was past noon. Having eaten all those samples in the department store, Sue didn’t feel very hungry. “I could head over to some coffee shop and have a drink,” she said. “How about you guys?”

Andy, who had helped himself to the most samples, agreed. He suddenly pointed. “Hey, there’s a Starbucks over there!”

Sue felt a sudden stab of nostalgia but fought it down. They had not come to Tokyo to have coffee at Starbucks. “Aren’t there Japanese coffee shops, too?” she asked Haruko.

“Of course there are!” snapped Haruko. “We had coffee shops long before you had Starbucks.”

They followed Haruko to the next block, where they found a café with dishes of food displayed in the window: spaghetti, hamburgers with French fries, a plate of yellow rice with little bits of stuff embedded, and tiny sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Haruko told them the display was made of plastic, but the food looked very realistic.

They sat down at a corner table and ordered some drinks. Andy ordered a cup of coffee, while Sue ordered one of the bubble teas, a tall, milky drink containing little balls of tapioca. She looked around at the walls, which had posters of comic book characters. “I recognize some of these manga characters.”