A Social Call

Posted by Mike Cash (Kiryu, Japan) on 24 April 2007 in Lifestyle & Culture.

About two-thirds of the way across Saitama, as I return from Tokyo, there is a new industrial park where it is convenient to pull over and take a break. At the center of the industrial park is a small sports ground, together with toilet facilities and a small but well-lighted parking lot.

Sometime in the fall of 2006, the parking lot gained a semi-permanent resident. A homeless man, perhaps 55-65 years old, parks his miniature truck beneath one of the lights. The truck is loaded down Grapes of Wrath style with God alone knows what. The miniscule cab is similarly half-loaded, and the man lives and sleeps at the wheel.

Sometimes he isn't there. I assume he is either off doing day labor or scavenging.

He is not without friends, however. Like Jeremiah the bullfrog from the song Joy to the World could tell you, as long as you have something to drink, you can always find someone to help you drink it.

That accounts for the presence of the gent you see here. He is the truck-dweller's drinking buddy. I have no idea if he is also homeless or not. I only know that I sometimes see him ride up on a bicycle. The man in the truck breaks out a jug of rotgut, a couple of plastic cups, and happy hour is underway.

VFXY Photos