I Scared A Lady

I was waiting in front of Brenda’s French Soul Food when the clock was moving toward 12 o’clock on a cold Saturday morning. I was in a big dilemma whether I should give up my more-than-an-hour waiting. I had an informal appointment with a lady at Benkyodo at 12 o’clock that day. Finally after sacrificing my primary need to eat something, I went to Benkyodo (a traditional mochi store in Japantown). It was 12 o'clock on the afternoon when I arrived there. My stomach was growling but I was glad the lady was still sitting there, sipping her hot drink.

I said, “Good morning. How are you?”

I felt a smile was blossoming from my face. I was really glad that I met the lady again. She was a Japanese senior citizen who spent a lot of time in Japantown. I talked to her the week before and asked her whether we can meet and talk again (only for talking not an interview). She said yes, she will be around on Saturday at 12 o’clock. The lady seemed to be quite knowledgeable with Japantown and I just felt that I had to talk to her somehow.

While she was sipping her hot drink and I ate my ohagi, I wondered what conversation should be used to break the ice. She just seemed distance and different from the lady that I met the week before. I wondered if she thought of me as a mere journalism student who was just poking her nose into other people’s business.

The week before we had a good conversation and then, when I left her, I bought some mochis to go and I thought, that was probably the time when she started to see me differently. I was quite persistent (more shameless probably) and refused to go before I got an interview with the owner of the store. I just went on looking at the articles and pictures on the wall while throwing a couple of quick questions now and then. I ended up getting a less than 10 minutes interview after I talked to the owner’s daughter who was there at that time. Deep down, I felt that I should not do this in front of her because I enjoyed talking to her as a person rather than a source.

However, she may see me differently after that little show of shamelessness. She threw a couple of quick questions before she finally said she had to leave. She did not even look at me and she just left like that while I was just sat beside her like a moment ago. Last week, she spent more than 45 minutes to talk to me.

It seemed like she tried to avoid me. There was a little bit of anger for her to leave me just like that when I even had to cancel my brunch for her. There was a little bit of disappointment that I did not get to talk to her. But more than that, I felt sad. Despite of my eagerness of getting a story, I want people to look at me as a person and not just a journalism student. Hopefully, I am just thinking too much.