Tsukuba Monogatari: 33rd post

Randy came in to Tokyo with me to open up his bank account, as the bank our company uses does not have a branch in Tsukuba. We drove in one car to Arakawaoki Station, and I showed him where The Company parking lot was. Jennifer left later, and drove her car to Arakawaoki. Randy wanted to get back to Tsukuba early, and Jennifer was planning to stay overnight. So we decided that Randy would take my car and I would drive Jennifer’s car home and pick her up at the station on Sunday.

Mt. TsukubaThis meant that Randy would have to find his way home from Arakawaoki Station by himself. Now Randy himself admits that he has no sense of direction. The truth of this was driven home to me when, after driving him back and forth along the 10-minute drive from his apartment to The Company several times during the first week (a route which takes us past Daiei Department Store, one of only three or four distinctive landmarks in Tsukuba―one of which is Mt. Tsukuba―I handed over the keys for his “maiden drive” and he asked, “Where’s Daiei?”

I imagined him wandering in the vicinity of Arakawaoki Station, searching for the parking lot. So I drew him a map from the station to the parking lot, and from the parking lot back to the main street back to Tsukuba. I gave him the map and asked if he thought he’d be okay.

“What was the name of the station again?” he asked.

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Mt. Tsukuba.” Courtesy of otan. Licensed under cc by NC-ND 2.0.