Monday, February 26, 2007
Starbucks Sunday 2- Video Arcade
We still have Tadashi’s car and in keeping with our new Starbucks Sunday tradition, we drive to the Shintoshin Starbucks inside the Naha Main Place Mall. I take a laptop computer along and we settle ourselves at a table by a wall outlet. As we sip our high octane drinks, I blog while Art and John practice kanji. March 3rd is the Hina Matsuri, or Doll Festival and as in retail establishments world wide, the mall is decorated to promote this festival.
When I tire of typing, John and I wander into the mall and check out the “Doll Festival Displays.” Table top glass “shadowboxes’” of Emperor and Empress Dolls are available for sale. As I understand it, this festival is for “girls” and historically was an excuse to celebrate when children often died young and everyone tolled the land. Many households display these glass encased miniature dolls in the weeks leading up to the festival in the same way that one might put up a Christmas tree. The price tags on these displays range from a couple of hundred dollars to two thousand dollars. The montages are beautiful and elaborate.
Time gets away from us. We have 1:00 P.M. plans to meet with Hatori, Mitsuro and Asahi, cousins of Art’s. Art telephones them at 12:30 and we postpone our meeting until 2:00 P.M. This morning I dressed hurriedly and now I feel the need to be more presentable before meeting with them. I annoy and frustrate Art and John by insisting that we go home so I can change. At 2:00 P.M. we are back at the mall for our rendezvous’. We meet at the noisy, vibrating, Video Arcade inside the mall. Asahi (13 years old) and John (14 years old) play shooting and driving arcade games. Art and I resign our selves to feeding 100 yen coins into these hungry machines for the next hour. Asahi’s mother, Hatori, is feeding the machines as well and takes me by the elbow and directs me into a photo booth where she pushes buttons, lights flash and ultimately a glossy photo pops out of us. This takes me back to being 13 years old on the Santa Monica Beach Boardwalk. A section for over 18 years old only adjoins the video arcade. Pachinko machines flash and “ping” most machines occupied by mesmerized players.
It is a grey and drizzly “Starbuck Sunday” so we might as well spend the day inside the mall indulging in retail therapy and this bright artificial “arcade bubble.” By 3:30 P.M. we are all hungry so we exit the mall, John “slip sliding” on the wet sidewalks and cross over to a restaurant for a bite to eat. Asahi doesn’t skateboard and John shows off, skateboarding on the slick sidewalks without a board. The restaurant has the easy glossy picture menus of a “formula” chain. I choose the “healthy” chicken and my entrée tastes too good to be healthy. We have brought a few gifts along and John gives Asahi a game of Tangos. The two boys play several hands of this “card” game and soon the adults are trying to solve the geometric puzzles. As Art pays the bill I notice that for sale beside the register are 18”tall pressurized cans topped with Donald Duck heads. To my amusement and amazement I discover that they are helium filled cans for kids to inhale and talks like a duck. Weird!!
Art needs to return Tadashi’s car and hurried arrangements are made in Japanese for John and I to go to the supermarket with Hatori and Asahi.We are finished our shopping in 30 minutes, but we need to wait over an hour more before Mitsuro will return to pick us up and drive us back home. With plastic grocery bags in tow we wander the electronic section of the mall. The exercise section of this store is packed with Sunday afternoon browsers. There are 12 different brands of massage chairs all of them are occupied by extremely relaxed potential customers. Each chair has a coin slot and for 100 yen one can test one for 15 minutes. Adjoining is an array of exercise machines. I have never seen the” horse style” machines that are straddled like a horse. Various programs can be chosen and your steed will perform at your desired level of exertion. There is a waiting line for the vibrating “diet” machine. I am amazed by the array of blood pressure machines, scales and foot massagers to choose from! We flow into a section with electronic keyboards and pianos and Asahi and John flip switches and play the instruments. At Hatori’s request a composed young sales women sits at an expansive key board, flips switches and adeptly plays the melody line to accompany an artificial background orchestration. Although I am not impressed by the piano, I am impressed at her grace and composure as families browse the instruments and their children play ear shattering arrangements.
Hatori’s cell phone rings; Mitzuro is waiting in the parking garage. We take the escalator up to the 4th floor, pile into his tiny van and are chauffeured home. It’s after 6:00 P.M.
My Marty Magic Web Site and e-mail are still down.