A Day in the Life

I am eating my breakfast at the Route Inn in Ena. It is like a Fairfield Inn, mostly populated with businessmen and traveling workers. Brian has gone back to the buffet to get more coffee for us, and I am transfixed by the morning news. No English subtitles. A crime story begins! Two police cars surround a private vehicle. What will happen? The newsman tells us in Japanese, but this does me no good. The cops command the soft middle-aged man out of his vehicle. They handcuff him. A cop seems to read him his rights with a slight smile. Another cop extracts a pack of cigarettes from the man’s pocket. The cameraman zooms in on the cigarettes. Were these illegal cigarettes, I wonder, or marijuana joints? The next thing I know, the soft middle-aged man makes a break for it. Oh! Oh! I silently intone with dramatic facial expressions, that I realize later, are those of our guide Shiori. The cops tackle him to the ground; the news story abruptly ends. I look around to see if there’s anyone to share this moment with me. I forget that Stephen from the Philippines is sitting next to me. “I guess police in Japan don’t have much to do.” We smile and nod together knowingly.