OBACHAN'S SCRIBBLES

Saturday, December 25, 2004

MEMORABLE　CHRISTMAS EVE

Unlike regular Friday nights, the Izakaya I work at was not crowded at all last night. It was Christmas eve. Everyone had somewhere else to go, you know. (I’m not going into too much details about how Japanese young people spend Christmas eve.)

At 9:30pm, my boss said I could go home, because there weren’t much to do in the kitchen. I didn’t feel like going straight home, so I emailed my friends and found that one of them was in town. We decided to have a couple of beers together.

At a very tiny pub not too far from the Izakaya, we chatted over drinks and had a good time. The place was very cozy with candle lights. One of the customers bought everyone (5 or 6 altogether) a drink (champagne!) and we made a toast cheerfully. The master offered us some canapé and said it was on the house because it’s Christmas eve. I enjoyed everything there, watching the tiny bubbles coming up in the champagne glass in the candle light, and chatting and joking with my friend. It was one of the best Christmas eve I had….at that point.

At 11:30pm I left for home. I cheerfully rode my “mamachari” bicycle and dropped by a supermarket to buy groceries, still “under the influence of alcohol.” Then I came home, and with a big bag of groceries in one hand, I tried to open the door. ----- Where’s the pouch that has my room key?

I emptied my bag and the bag of groceries right outside of my door and looked for the pouch. No, it wasn’t there. I put everything back in the bags and rode my bicycle again to the supermarket. (Good heavens it is the one open for 24 hrs.) I asked a young casher about my pouch, then he immediately went to another desk and took out my pouch and gave it to me! Hurray!! It’s Christmas eve, after all!

I rode my bicycle again in the cold wind back to my apartment, and tried to take out the key from the pouch. The pouch was open…. my cell phone was there…. but the key and my driver’s license were gone.

Furiously I rode my bicycle back again to the supermarket, and asked the same casher if they kept my key and driver’s license somewhere else for me. The answer was no. I looked all over the supermarket keeping my eyes on the floor, but of course they weren’t there. Did someone who picked up my pouch kindly left my cell phone in it but stole my room key and driver’s license?! On Christmas eve?!

So one more place left to check was the tiny pub where I took out my driver’s license and joked about it. Maybe it fell on the floor while I was admiring the bubbles in the champagne glass?? But at the pub the answer I got was NO again.

On my bicycle, I tried to make a decision ---- either I should somehow get in from the window, or spend the rest of the night at a manga/internet café and go to the landlord to get a copy of the key next morning. Luckily, I had enough money to spend the rest of the night at that kind of café. Gee, am I going to be one of those folks who spend Christmas eve at a manga kissa? Or worse, I could be the only one there!

When I came to the same supermarket, I decided to go inside to ask about the key again, and parked my bicycle at the same spot as before. Then something on the ground caught my eyes… it looked about the same size as my driver’s license…and IT WAS my driver’s license! AND the room key was underneath it!!!


Joy to the World. May your Christmas be as memorable as mine……


**** Merry Christmas ****

posted by obachan, 12/25/2004 01:18:00 PM

3 Comments:

Thanks. I was soooooo happy when I finally got in my room. Well, it might have been fun to crawl up the wall to my balcony and break in from the window, and if caught by a police, tell him “I’m a Santa Claus.”
About the haloscan: Yeah, I’ll think about it. Right now I’m clicking on the reload button every time I post a comment.
commented by Blogger obachan, 12/26/2004 10:01 AM  
Hi Obachan,
You had quite a hard Christmas night, but were finally very happy!
Much belatedly I say to you, "Merry Christmas!"

I'm getting more visitors (already over 10,000) at "Ted's Coffeehouse" than at two blog sites here (a little over 800 including my own visits). So I'm trapped to write there rather than here. But I'll come back here soon.
commented by Blogger Tatsuo Tabata, 12/28/2004 8:52 PM  
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commented by Anonymous Anonymous, 2/03/2009 6:30 PM  

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