Saturday, September 09, 2006

Who are the people in your neighborhood?

Well, here are some of the people in MY neighborhood:

First, there's Old Transvestite Homeless Guy, who lives on a couple of benches on the pedestrian walkway near my apartment. I was under the assumption that he never wears a shirt, but my roommate has just informed me that he'll bust out a camisole and a pair of fakies on occasion.
Old Homeless Woman usually just hangs out by the station on a pile of cardboard boxes and talks to herself.
Often when I'm walking home at night, I'll pass by that super-bony woman who's always jogging. It's probably insensitive of me to call her Skeletor.
And then there's that whole crew who works at the conveyor-belt sushi place. The male chefs will yell "Irrashaimase!" at you in a sing-song voice, and the female waitresses never wear any expression other than "sullen." The oldest waitress annoys the hell out of me, because not only does always she thank me more times than is comfortable, but she also says it in a strange way. It's really nasal, and it's always "arigatou gozaimaSUUUUU." Ugh.
Of course there's Takuya from Bee Darts Bar, but I don't go there anymore after I realized how insanely expensive it is.
My new favorite bar is called Drunky, and it's right next to the ECC school here in Omiya. It's a tiny hole-in-the-wall that blasts reggae music out into the street. Kenichi and Hide, the two bartenders who work there, are trying to help me learn how to talk like a normal person and not a textbook. They're my buddies.
Homma is a 40-something guy who's always hanging out at Drunky, and is always, well, drunky. Last time he was there, he declared himself my japanese dad. I also met a girl named Reona who was thrilled to talk to me right up until she passed out on the bar.
One of my favorite local people is Ramen Man. Every night, without fail, you can find him at the local ramen shop, making noodles for all the drunk businessmen (and sometimes me). He's a happy dude, and it's fun to watch him throw all the ingredients together with the flair of someone who has dedicated his life to ramen.
I never really see my neighbors in this building. The one time I saw them, they happened to walk by me as I was outside having a heated conversation on the phone. They looked scared and confused (as is the normal Japanese response to someone like me) and I haven't seen them since.

Oh Omiya.

Anyway, here's a picture of something funny because I KNOW YOU WANT IT:

Yup.

1 comment:

Broady said...

The people in my neighborhood are: a old, fussy couple; a middle-aged general contractor and his rotund wife; an amazing cook with imagined "chemical aversions" (gets pissed everytime I fertilize my lawn); a registered sex offender, and the Southern version of the Brady Bunch.

Love the sausage. That would go over like gangbusters over here.