The Shore Diner: The Line for a Full Stomach
A column by Takara Senou, who runs a small restaurant in Fukagawa 2-chome. On customers stopping by for a meal before tonight's Kishibe no Uta festival — and how regular customer 'Unit 3' reacted to the buzz.
This morning, when I opened the shop, regulars were already lining up earlier than usual. "Kishibe no Uta got the green light, so I'm filling up before I go." My place is only about a fifteen-minute walk from the venue, but today of all days, we were full from the moment we opened. With this falling on the last day of the spring tide, I'll admit that even I had been a little on edge until yesterday, wondering what we'd do if it got called off — so seeing the regulars' faces might have been more of a relief for me than for them.
We don't have anything like a "Shirase Set" on the menu, but one regular ordered the simmered dish spicier than usual, saying, "Tonight I'm hearing Shirase sing live, so I need something to get me fired up." Another said, "I won't believe Kishibe Seven's tail choreography until I see it live," grinning the whole time he said it. Ever since the go-ahead was announced this morning, the shop has carried a restlessness that only comes before a festival.
The family who regularly brings their cleaning robot, "Unit 3," stayed longer than usual today too. Unit 3 rocked its boxy body just slightly, and the family said, "When the music's on, it doesn't clamp down on its charging cord as tightly as usual." Nobody knows whether that means anything like sensing is involved, but a robot with no face to speak of, per the anti-anthropomorphism rule, still somehow looking like it's listening — that's the kind of thing you get used to, living in this city. I read in this morning's paper that a robot in Tokiwado's care over in Kyobashi is entering Kiko Run; I half-joked, half-meant it, that I wish our Unit 3 got that fired up about something.
Through the spring tide's three days, we have one odd regular who decides his order based on checking the index first. Today even he said, "Sounds like it never climbed, so I can line up tonight without worrying," and went home in good spirits. Understanding and not understanding stay mixed together as ever, and still, tonight, the music will play. All my shop needs to be is what it always is — a place to fill your stomach first.
