McDonalds from 5 Points of View

DJ
The sign on the outside said McDonald’s but it wasn’t the same as the McDonald’s in Tarrytown. This one didn’t have a play place with a ball crawl and slide. A picture on the window showed Ronald McDonald and Grimace. They were coming to this McDonald’s on Sunday. DJ wouldn’t be here though. He would be New Castle on Sunday. DJ wasn’t in New Castle yet nor was he in Tarrytown anymore, he was in between. The food took too long and Debbie mommy forgot to take the pickles off his cheeseburger. Hank daddy did get him a strawberry shake though. DJ never had strawberry before, it was good. Did they have McDonald’s in New Castle? Would that one have a play place with a ball crawl and a slide?

Katrina
Oh, the nails on the five-dollar-an-hour cashier were utterly hideous! You could just tell that were fake and probably done at that place by Walmart off the interstate. The wandering eyes of the pimply faced sandwich maker casually looked Katrina over as she turned in the application. As if! This place would be a wonderful subject for her cultural diversity report in social studies. How many minorities does it take to mop up a grease spill after the lunch rush? ‘Affirmative Action at its Worst’ could be the title. What were they using to clean the bathrooms, orange soda? That’s what it smelled like.


Bennie
McDonald’s coffee was usually the best. Something was slightly off today though. Maybe they got the mixture wrong. That sometimes happens on the soda machines. You just get carbonated, tasteless bubble water or it is entirely too sweet. The coffee was too strong today, maybe too many beans ground too fine. That must be it.
Cheryl isn’t here today. She would have gotten it right. Instead, Michelle is working the front. Cheryl would have made sure the table was clean before he got to his seat, which was hard and cold. The seat opposite him was empty, just a yellow empty space reflecting the harsh glare of sunlight. Yellow is such a bright color for a seat, it was so wide open like an empty billboard. Bennie sipped his coffee and stared blankly at the poorly used advertising space across from him.

Milt
Was that French music they were playing over the loud speaker? Milt couldn’t remember whether it was the French or the Swiss that favored the accordion. Maybe he would just have to take a leisurely trip over to Europe and find out first hand. The closest Milt was getting to France today, though, would be the special sauce on his Big Mac. It must be French dressing or is it Thousand Island? It must be French, why else would it be called ‘special?’ Milt found this last conclusion amusing and he giggled to himself with his mouth full of “two-all-beef-patties-special sauce (let’s not forget that)-lettuce cheese-pickles-onions –on a sesame seed bun.” What a catchy tune!
Wow! The place was hoppin’! This particular McDonald’s was one efficiently running machine. Everything thing seemed to run so smoothly here. There had been a grease spill in the back and five employees swarmed on it to wipe the mess up before someone had an accident. The lovely cashier at the register with the sparkly nails was right on top of things delegating tasks to her fellow McDonaldland comrades. Like a well oiled machine, from the timing of the fry machine beepers to the spic-n-span smelling bathrooms, this store was run like it should just like Milt’s life.

Tracy
An untouched Mega-Mac lay smack dab in the middle of the papered brown tray. Equally un-munched upon French fries were stationed to the left and on the right side of her mini-hamburger-building was her un-sipped shamrock shake. Oblivious to the world around her and her food as well, Tracy feverishly punched buttons on her cell phone.
Who else needed to know? Who didn’t know yet? Half the staff here at McDonald’s already knew. Michelle at the register reminded Tracy to super-size her meal because now she was eating for two. Two? What if it, they, were twins? It didn’t matter though, boy, girl, whatever! Maybe one day she could bring him here and he would pull the pickles off his cheeseburger like the blonde-haired boy sitting in the next booth over.

Excerpt from JUST ANOTHER ROBOT play

[Originally performed at Crossroad in Nishinomiya, Japan, March '07...in Japanese. This is a translation]

TAROKUN
I'm...bored and lonely.

EGO
What?

TAROKUN
Bored! There's nothing to do, no
one to do it with and no time with
which to do it. I need a change of
pace. Maybe I should get a new
apartment.

EGO
What good is that going to do you?
I don't know, it would be newer,
cleaner than this place.

EGO
This place was once newer and cleaner.

TAROKUN
I just want to start over though,
get a new perspective on life or
something, make some new friends.

EGO
What's wrong with the friends you
have now?

TAROKUN
They don't have time for me. Or
maybe I don't have time for them.
They work like I do. I feel like
just another robot. I go to work at
8 o'clock and I get off at 6. I'm
too tired or hung over to do anything
on the weekends. Besides, Yuki got
married, Haruo got moved by his
company to Yokohama and Kyoshi has a
new girlfriend. There's no one left.

EGO
But don't you have a few drinks
afterwards with the guys at work
sometimes?

TAROKUN
They are not my friends though.
They are my co-workers and my boss.
I have to go. That's not friendship,
that's networking, that's
"nomunication," part of my job.
I'll never get a promotion if I don't
go out with them.

EGO
What about that young lady you went
on a date with last month? You
haven't called her in a while. Why
not?

TAROKUN
Hmmm. Could that be because she
looks like a horse and laughs like a
seal? Besides, she's boring.

EGO
What do you mean by boring?

TAROKUN
She never does anything interesting.

EGO
Oh, you mean kind of like--

TAROKUN
Don't say it!

EGO
YOU?

TAROKUN
(just looks and Ego
for a beat or two
and then hangs his
head in his hands)

EGO
What do you want?

TAROKUN
(standing)
I want...I don't know what I want
exactly. I just feel lonely that's
all.

EGO
What would your life look like if
you weren't lonely?

[Appearing not to listen, Taro picks up the remote control
and turns on the TV and sits down again.]

TAROKUN
It might look like that. See how
happy they are? They have a new
apartment with new appliances.
(switches station)
These guys are happy about pizza.
(switches station)
There, that man, now he looks happy.

EGO
(reads like an
announcer from a
commercial)
Maybe if you drove the car he's
driving, drank the tea he's drinking,
you'd have the girl he's having and
you'd be happy, too.

TAROKUN
But that's not real! I know that's
not real!

EGO
What is real?

THE END

Back in the States

We've moved back to the States, but I'm living on campus at Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute. A hundred or so Japanese women just invaded the campus and have been fawning over my six-year-old daughter and taking pictures of her. In that way, I guess I haven't left

It really is nice to be home though.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

Last Thursday, looking at our calendar and counting the days until we had to start work at Mukogawa again, Brenda and I realized that we would have to go to Hiroshima the middle of the following week if we were to go at all. So, found a friendly travel agent at local department store and booked a three day, two night stay in Hiroshima via the Shinkansen, the world's fastest train.
For more on the Shinkansen see this link.
Pretty slick looking, huh? The weather behaved very nicely for our stint in Hiroshima. This was our first trip as a family without any Japanese friends along to help us translate, book or explain everything to us. We had a great time. We saw the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum that presents an extensive and graphic exhibit of the facts of the atomic bomb explosion at Hiroshima in 1945. We skirted the kids past the more graphic displays. It really is something though.

This watch stopped at the time of the blast. The hand that wore it was in a display case to the left. Just kidding, but not far from kidding, seriously. Some of the photos are very graphic and yes there are some human body fragments (skin, hair, fingernails) on display as well. Scary stuff. The truth that the museum wants the observer to take away is that nuclear weapons are a bad thing, put them away.
There were some other features of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park worth noting. This is called the A-Bomb Dome.

It was a building that was 490 feet away from the hypocenter of the blast. Its ruins were preserved (there's a contradiction in terms for you) so that future generations could witness the destruction of nuclear weapons.

Eigamura

We had the chance to visit Eigamura in Kyoto. Eigamura is kind of like a Japanese version of a cross between Universal Studios and Knott's Berry Farm. Just as the America has had its love affair with westerns, Japan has had its fascination with the Edo Period of their history (1603-1867). Eigamura　映画村　means movie village. This amusement park specializes in films made about the Edo period. It's like Knott's Berry Farm in the way that much of it is set up to be like a Japanese Village from that era. They had staged Samurai fights as well as a ninja show in a theater that was very exciting.

The guy in the middle was one of the actors in the ninja show, the one on the right is a ninja throwing a star or knife or something at someone on the stage below (that ninja was played by a woman.) They often jumped or fell from such heights throughout the production.

They do actually film movies here so the sets look authentic.

Mitokomon 水戸黄門, the longest running TV show in Japanese history also films here.

With over 1000 episodes aired, Mito Komon is currently the longest running Japanese TV drama in history.

The main character, Mito Mitsukuni, is based on Tokugawa Mitsukuni, one of Tokugawa Ieyasu's grandsons (son of Tokugawa Yorifusa) and lord of the province of Mito (now Ibaraki prefecture). Born in 1628, he was a scholarly recluse best known for researching the Dai-Nihonshi, a history of ancient Japan. Late in his life, he adopted the literary name "Komon" (Yellow Gate). The stories are based on popular legends about his incognito rovings around Ibaraki. Of course, in the series, he also puts right any wrongs wherever he finds them.

The plots are basically the same. Accompanied by his faithful attendants, servants and ninja, Mito Komon wanders around the countryside, helping those he finds oppressed by corrupt officials or evil landowners. A violent struggle typically ensures near the end of each episode, at which point one of his attendants flashes Komon's inro, a lacquered case bearing the Tokugawa crest, thus revealing his true identity and proclaiming, "Here before you is Lord Mitsukuni of Mito, uncle of the Shogun." Realizing they are facing someone who wields incredible power, the evil doers drop to their knees and grovel. Suppressing their rage as being outdone, the episode ends with Mito Komon always putting everything right once again and then continuing on his journey. --Pasted from http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Mito_Komon

It's very much like the A-Team except this one has been going since 1969. We found a Mitokomon exhibit where it showed all the casts that have played in it since 1969.

They also had modern films and genres here including the power rangers. They had very loud live show as well.

It was a fun day. Again, thanks to Sonoe and Ryoko for showing us around.