"Irashaimase"

Tuesday

We took the ferry to Tokashiki Island yesterday and it was bright and sunny but today cats and dogs are falling from the skies. I walk down to the phone at our corner “Family Mart and make phone calls in the rain. I want sushi for breakfast and with umbrella in hand, walk briskly over to the fish market returning with two “bento boxes” of nigiri sushi. After breakfast, Art leaves to go to the “One or Eight Internet Café” to work on his web site. I spend the better part of the day absorbed in carving a “Lava Dragon Ring” around a delicious piece of Arizona Fire Agate. John is fascinated by the gemstones that we purchased at the Tucson Gem and Mineral show and he shuffles through the collection offering up some very good design suggestions. John busies himself with homework and plays internet games on the computer. By late afternoon my shoulders are aching and John is frustrated playing games without a “mouse.” He has Christmas money to spend, the rain has ceased and the two of us bicycle up to Shintoshin to the “Good Will” (an electronic store) to purchase a mouse. After his purchase we part ways, John returns home to hook up his new electronic gadget and I bicycle towards Kokusai Street. I have tried on several occasions to “shop” for gifts in this international shopping district and each time I have returned empty handed. Realize that I am traveling with two men who dislike the sort of stores that would interest most women. Realize also that when I am alone I cannot communicate more than minimally with the store keepers. Add to this, that I am not a good shopper to begin with.

I park my bicycle in a corner plaza across from the Mitsukoshi Department Store. I push open the glass doors of Mitsukoshi and am “greeted” with a cheerful and formal ”irashaimase.” (Please come in.) This greeting is called out to me in every department that I pass through. I would like to be invisible, but eyes follow my every move. My destination is the 6^th and 7^th floors, where traditional Japanese and Okinawa goods are for sale. I browse the lacquer ware and potteries displays and want to go into the Kimono gallery, just to admire the rolls of silk fabric, but I am intimidated and turn on my heels and escape back down the elevator, across the street and into the bustle of the Heiwa Dori arcade. I know my way around here and have my favorite shops. I am looking for two birthday gifts and a dragon noren. (A noren is the cloth curtain that hangs in many doorways.) Two hours later I still have not purchased anything and my cell phone rings. Art asks where I am and offers to come join me. 20 minutes later I spot him standing beside his bicycle, wearing his red helmet and waiting to cross the street. I am so very happy to see him and we retrace my steps back through the maze of arcades and tiny shops. I have been too timid to ask prices and unable to ask for different sizes and Art goes with me and is my translator. We score one of the two gifts I am searching for. (Mom, keep your eye out for a package!) I take him to a picturesque alley that I’ve discovered where a tiny Sanshin Izakaya is hidden. We ask questions about it and hope to return some evening to eat and drink and listen to the traditional music. We bicycle home in the dark and I cook a quick dinner for all of us before Art and John leave for Tuesday night Karate.