9/4/2007, Shimokitazawa McDonald'sMy friend was running late, an hour late, so I popped into the McDonald's by the station for some coffee and fries. It had been a while since I sat and ate at McDonald's. Once in a blue moon I'll crave a McFlurry or some chicken nuggets or the newest gimicky thing on the menu piques my curiousity and I find an excuse to indulge myself, but when I succumb I usually take my guilt to go. I'd rather not be caught in public stuffing my face with transfats. I can only enjoy this kind of guilty pleasure at home or with a friend, "see, she's eating it, too. we're just eating it for fun. see how fun it is...".
But yesterday as I was sitting by myself facing a menacing pile of fries, coffee and the gray spackled countertop, I felt like a fly on the wall. The place was filled: mostly broke highschool students, broke college students and broke bachelors. I listened intently to all the commotion around me. When that got old I turned to my book but smoky gray ash kept raining down on me and sticking to my skin. I was surrounded by so many young smokers(teenage rebellion!! so overdone, but interesting). But after forty minutes I started to feel truly miserable I felt like I was coming down with something and I nearly ran out of there when my friend called to say she arrived.
In the end the fluorescent lighting, underage smoking and ash kind of took the joy out of my anthropological research and squashed my rose-tinted memories of hanging out here with my friends when I was a teenager, but it was worth it to get a brief look at a different side of Japan otherwise I'm kind of sheltered by my trendiness.
1 comment:
sorry for exposing you to the vapid and smoky. it took me three hours to wash and clothe myself that day. i was in withdrawal; you was in meckdonaldz.
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