Lissette Lorenz

I have taken many things for granted over the years. Unrestricted access to a refrigerator and kitchen, for example. Literacy. Vegetable recognition.

When I tell my Japanese teachers and acquaintances that I’ve lived in Japan for ten months prior to moving to Tokyo this summer, they all say, “Ooooh, so you must already be used to life in Japan.” The easy answer, which I usually give, is “Yeah, basically.”

The truth is, I’m lying.  I sometimes still struggle with the basics. Let me give you a couple examples:

1. I want to go to the beach. Friends say let’s meet there at 8:30 am. That means that I have to catch a 6:30 am train, which means I have to leave my dorm at 6:00 am to walk to Kichijoji station. Trouble is, the dorm gates don’t open until 6:30 am. I don’t realize this until 5:47 am, when I am getting ready to leave. I don’t have a phone to call people and let them know my situation, so instead I sneak out through my back door, shimmy up a bike rack and a fence, and escape. The beach is fun, but   I have to wait to get back to the dorm to wash off the sea water. By the time I get back to the dorm, it is almost 11 pm and the shower room is locked. I have to wait until the next morning to shower. The result is a nasty allergic reaction to the 9+ hours worth of ocean gunk I exposed my skin to. Luckily, the school nurse speaks some English and helps translate my predicament to the doctor. Now the skin on my hands and feet only look only slightly like a toad’s.

2a.  I want to eat. Usually this is easily fixed. My dorm has a small dining hall where breakfast and dinner are served six days a week. That usually leaves me with just lunchtime and Sundays to figure out what to eat. Lunch on the weekdays is easy, because I can just buy something at the school cafeteria. Sundays are a bit tough, and at first I settled on buying already prepared meals at the nearby convenience store. When I tired of conbini food, I just bought bread and peanut butter at the nearby grocery store and lived off of that. I would have bought more groceries, but the trouble is the only fridge I have access to is a communal one that is filled to the brim. All I can fit in there is a bag of popsicles in the freezer. Plus, I don’t have cooking utensils, nor can I recognize many of the food stuffs in the grocery store. I also didn’t think I had access to a kitchenette until, like, yesterday.

2b. Things take a turn for the worse when the dorm cooks take an eight-day vacation. I can’t afford to eat out every time I get hungry, so I am about to resign to eating more peanut butter sandwiches when an angel saves me. A girl at the dorm leaves for a long vacation and graciously offers me to use her own personal fridge while she is away. Even invites me to consume whatever is left in said fridge. Such kindess! Time to go grocery shopping for REALZ this time.

Since I only have to feed myself for a week before I move to my new apartment, I am not intimidated by the idea of figuring out what to cook. I will teach myself to cook a proper meal with Japanese ingredients later, I tell myself. For now, dinner will either consist of instant ramen supplemented with fresh corn and mushrooms or grilled cheese sandwiches dipped in peanut sauce (a homemade creation of Jiffy pb and vinegrated soy sauce). Mmmmmmm. Breakfast is cereal with soymilk and some canned tangerines and yogurt.  Lunch will still be supplied by my school cafeteria (or simple skipped on the weekend). I’ve discovered some hotplates and even a couple of pans in the dining hall, and I use my handy Leatherman/Swiss army knife that I got as a departure present from Shansi to cut up my foodies. Huzzah!

I wonder what I’ll do when I really become independent in five days. School will be over, and I’ll be in my apartment in Machida. I will be able to go in and out when I please, bathe whenever I want, and I’ll have a whole fridge to myself. Now I’ll just have to figure out how to fix myself a decent meal that doesn’t involve anything instant or covered in peanut butter. Good thing there is a cooking section in my local library! It’s all in Japanese, sure, and I’m mostly illiterate, but what is the fun in life without a challenge?