I have been living a very modest life, like a monk in a monastery, since the coronavirus pandemic started.
I hadn’t taken a train for many months. But then my foreigners’ residency card was about to expire. So I had to travel to the Immigration Bureau in Shinagawa to renew it. This meant taking two trains and a bus to get there.
I managed to get my new card without too much trouble. But, as I walked through an extremely crowded Ikebukero Station, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be ironic if I contracted the coronavirus now, just because the government forced me to travel all the way to Shinagawa to renew my visa, when I have been taking such care to avoid leaving Nerima for a year?”
My wife and I decided to reward ourselves for our trouble in getting the extension by going to a Mexican restaurant in Shinagawa for lunch.
The meal was lovely, and great value. We got a set course of soup, salad, main course and drink for 1,100 Yen each. I really enjoyed eating food with a totally different taste than the Japanese food I have been eating continuously for a year. There were beans, some kind of avocado sauce, melted cheese, corn, and spicy salsa flavours mixed together.
But when we ordered the coffees, the waiter didn’t ask if we would like them before or after the meal. Instead, he just brought them before the meal. It seemed like the restaurant had changed its policy in response to the coronavirus pandemic: they were hoping that the customers would drink up their coffees without chatting after their meal, and so avoid spending time there with no masks on.
Therefore, it was both nice to get out to a restaurant for the first time in quite a while, and a little sad to find that eating in a restaurant is not as relaxed as it used to be.
Hopefully, as we all get vaccinated, dining out will become as enjoyable again as it always used to be.
Vocabulary:
a monk – a member of a religious community of men, especially those following strict promises to avoid luxury
to expire – of a card, document, etc., to reach the end of the time when it is allowed to be used
to be ironic – Humorous or funny because the opposite normally ought to be true
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