Haragei & Gyotaku

The last time I had visited Japan I had gone there to chase a girl. We had spent an incredible 2 weeks getting to know one another while she was here on a tour. She ended up ditching the tour and crashed with me for the remainder of her trip meeting up again with her tour group for the flight home from San Francisco.

I drove her to San Fran instead of her having to bus hop and fly around the U.S. to all of the touristy spots. I was determined for her to see what this country was all about by sharing a piece of apple pie at a truck stop in Nebraska around 4 am instead of all the bullshit I'm sure her guide would have shown her. She agreed and off we went.

Not having any clue how to get to Nebraska I headed out of town on whatever road was lined with signs that said "west" on them. I had twelve more days to make it to San Francisco to say goodbye to someone sitting next to me whom I had only met the day before. We drove through the night most of the time with her occasionally goofing up by turning into traffic as if she was back home.

Some firsts were custard, football jerseys, and John Cougar Mellencamp. That fucking radio never stopped playing his songs I swear. By the time the neon brilliance that was Shoemaker's Truck Station we had had enough of pink houses. We walked inside and got the normal looks one would expect to get if you were a yankee walking into a midwestern truck station at 4 am with a young Japanese woman by your side wearing a Philadelphia Eagles hoodie.

Two cups of tea, a slice of apple pie, an order of fries and a cheese burger were the order. It came with a 1,001 stories thanks to the cook who was entertaining the diners while flipping pancakes and burger patties. There were some crude jokes about Mexicans but nothing too offensive. She mentioned something about mayonaisse and the next thing I knew we were being delivered a dissertation on the differences of regular mayo and Miracle Whip and their effects on your grilled cheese sandwich.

We stepped outside, breathed in the diesel fumes, wiped our hands and walked towards the truck. With five days to San Francisco we hadn't seen the Grand Canyon yet and had to get a move on if we were going to.

Oh yeah, the last time I was in Japan...

shit

wait a second here...

this was post number

500