Ijiri Town Drunk

So I was shopping in my local supermarket the other day trying to buy the meat that was on sale. Apparently, there was something about the posted 98 yen sign that I didn’t understand and as I was trying my best to use sign language and broken crappy Japanese to explain to the cashier a haggard middle aged man turns around and starts speaking to me in English asking if I need help. I explain (slightly surprised I had found someone who speaks English at all) that I thought the meat was on sale and explains the somewhat confusing system of the market that prices foods cheaper that are closer to expiration dates and harder and harder to sell. He asks where I’m from, I tell him LA, California, USA and his first question to me is “How many guns do you have?” Somehow every Japanese person thinks that every American is a gun-toting cowboy. I tell him thank you for his help and I return to the meat isle to find cheaper on sale meat and he’s there again a few minutes later. This time I realize he’s drinking a beer that he just bought from the market and his breath smells badly of alcohol and I realize there’s something wrong. I see him once more at the cash register when I go to pay for my meat and as I hurriedly try to pay for my food he is muttering things like “This guy’s name is Eric, he says he’s from America…” to the cashier who obviously doesn’t understand English. Still one of the nicest and most helpful town drunks I’ve ever met.

The story continues….

3 days later I go back to the market to do some shopping for the next week and I see him again. I try to pretend as if I don’t notice him this time but I stop to chat with Margaux and Laura who are coincidentally shopping at the same time. As we catch each other up on each other’s dramatic nights, I see him walking towards us. I continue to ignore him but he’s moved right up behind Laura and Margaux and just stands there a couple feet away staring at us. He speaks a moment later and says “Hi, I’m just noticing your English, where are you guys from?” The girls tell them they’re from France and then he asks me where I’m from and I realize he was too drunk the first time we met to even remember we had met. We make some polite conversation and when he walks away, Margaux and Laura look at me with a WTF look on their faces. I explain my last encounter with him and Margaux understands now why he stank of alcohol when he spoke. He’s not a scary drunk, rather friendly in fact, and so far the only other town drunk of Tsuyazaki that John and Jose have met gave them a juice box of sake. As far as town drunks go, I’d say Japan has some pretty nice ones.