My Pet Japanese

When I awoke in the morning, most of the UN had dispersed leaving behind the Japanese kid. I was able to learn from some very patient probing and careful translating a little more about my new Japanese friend. He had come from Japan, with no money, to quote him “some people give me a….money to leave……they no want me in Japan, me crazy, stupid, lazy!”  He had been working at a sushi restaurant in Carmel but some how the Japanese guy he was working for didn’t want him any more, so he was left to wonder the streets. He had been living in parks for a few weeks when he met a Japanese girl who cleaned him up and gave him some money to stay at the hostel in Monterey, but to quote him again “Japanese woman no want me, me crazy, stupid, lazy.”

In the morning I tried my hand at holding another conversation with him, to which I discovered he needed to go to the market. He pulled out a Costco card and said to me “you know? I need to go?” I laughed and thought I could help him out so I said “yeah I know where the Costco is!” I had seen it from the highway the other day when I was returning from K’s. I should have said I new the general vicinity it was in. So I offered him a lift there.

I should have made the fact more clear that I only knew the general vicinity it was in, and began driving in that direction. From the beginning the Japanese fellow kept saying to me “ahhh no I think it that way.” To which I kept saying “No…its cool man I know where its at, its over there.” In hind sight it never occurred to me that there might be more then one Costco in the area. So I pressed on driving in circles up and down streets all the wile saying odd bits of American trivia to my Japanese passenger. Finally I got fed up looking on the side streets for it and decided to head back to the highway I had seen it from. As I got on the entrance ramp, I thought I would play a bit of a joke so I turned to him and said “Dude I hope you want to go to San Francisco with me!” The look in his eyes became one of pure terror. He actually thought I was taking him to San Fran, and if I were a guy that barely spoke English, traveling with a guy I just met the night before, I would be a bit scared to. He yelled out “NO GO TO FRANCISCO! Go to Costco only!” It took me a bit to calm him down and reassure him I was going to the Costco and that this was indeed the way to get there. He kept pointing out my window towards the South saying to me “NO……I think it over there.”  I ignored this as what could he possible know, he’s not from here, but then again neither am I, but I know I saw the damn Costco in this direction. Before long it appeared off to our right, and leaned over and said “See dude, its right there, I told you I knew where it was, but you didn’t believe me.” He just stared out the window at it and didn’t say a word.

I pulled up to the curb in front of the massive store and said “there you go buddy, I told you I knew how to get here.” He looked at me perplexed like why are we stopped and he just sat in his seat. I said to him again “Ok man here you go, we’re here!” he looked at me and said “oh here oh…..oh oh ok.” He opened the door to my car and got out, grabbing his meager possessions with him. I leaned over and extended my arm to shake his hand and said “OK buddy you take care good luck.” He shook my hand and said “ah yes good luck.” Then he slammed my door shut and I pulled away from the curb. I looked back through my rearview mirror as I pulled away and I could see him just standing there staring at my car driving off. It was at this point that it hit me, that I might have done more harm then good. Here I had just given a foreigner with a limited English vocabulary and almost nothing a lift 20 miles away from where he was staying, to a store I’m not quite sure was the right one he wanted to go to. The image of him staring at me as I pulled away still haunts my mind, almost like I had abandoned a beloved pet in the woods.