Costco and Ehtesham

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 in: News, Travel

The next day, I got up with a sense of excitement and nostalgia. My old host family was kind enough to put me up for a couple days, so when I got up, I found a small breakfast waiting for me at my old place at the dining room table. I once again had that feeling that it was all a memory from another life, but at the same time, I was re-experiencing it with a keen familiarity. It’s funny how sometimes my own memories are a mystery to me. Sometimes they slip through my fingers, and sometimes there is some small thing that triggers a rush of deja vu, a flood of 懐かしい. There’s no telling what will set this off. I need to find the key to my past.

In the spirit of rekindling old memories, my plans for the day were to meet up with Kaoru and Brian and go to Costco near Tamasakai station. We met a little later than expected and hoofed it to the store. The second we stepped into the store, it was like I’d been transported home; The smells, the samples, the layout; it was all exactly like back home. This costco was even better than back home, because in addition to the usual Kirkland fare and imported goods, they had bulk Japanese goods. I gorged myself on samples and had to restrain myself from buying a bunch of stuff I had no business buying, and settled on sharing some Pizza and a bulgogi bake (new beef version of the chicken bake!). One surprising find that I couldn’t resist: they had a palette of Dad’s Root Beer (24 cans) for only 780 yen. This was a stellar deal, probably because no one in Japan drinks Root Beer. At least, no Japanese person I know likes it. I split it with Brian; I  figured it would be fun to share with my Japanese friends, and omiyage to the poor deprived exchange students.

We headed out of the store and back to the station. I got home later than I expected and had dinner with Papa, who’d gotten home earlier than usual. I gave him a taste of Root Beer and to my surprise he actually liked it. Mama took a whiff of the open can and passed on the opportunity. Still rather full from all the costco food, I ate my large dinner very slowly and carefully. Despite my full stomach, Mama’s cooking was excellent as usual, and I couldn’t help but finish it all.

The next morning I woke up to say goodbye to Mama as she headed out early, and talked with Papa as we both prepared for our days. I was staying at Kaoru’s that night, so I had to stuff my life back into my backpack. I left the house with Yukiko at a leisurely 8:30am, and headed to Shinjuku. Ehtesham was returning to the states today so I was going to meet with him in the station and grab a cup of coffee before he headed out. I had some time to kill, so I decided to get a little lost in the underground malls seething beneath the surface of Shinjuku. I hadn’t explored them much before, but soon realized just how extensive these underground corridors were, and realized there was a whole other world hiding under my feet. I found a much quieter route to get from my station to my old workplace without setting foot on street level. Pointless now, but still was a fun adventure.

Ehtesham was just as I remembered, a great guy with a personality too big for the people around him. We laughed over stories new and old. It was a great catch-up, I’m glad I was able to meet with him before we head in opposite directions. I realized that friendships, much like everything else, take some work to keep up; you get back what you put into them. If you are only friendly, you’re rewarded with a passing familiarity with people. If you make the effort to stay in touch, you may find your reward is an actual friend. He and Willy were testaments of that; they had come to Japan for their old tailor’s wedding. You never know…

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