Free Alien Rice; A Novel. by Ichiro Kawasaki Page B

were shown to a cot placed in a corner of the living room and there saw Toshio fast asleep.
    "What a big boy! And isn't he fair—like a foreign doll!" exclaimed old Mrs. Tanaka.
    "He weighed a little over eight pounds when he was born. And he is so healthy," Saburo added proudly.
    Though still somewhat awkward at times in the com pany of their foreign daughter-in-law, Genzo and his wife seemed more relaxed than Genzo had been at the airport. Alice boiled a kettle in the kitchen and made green tea to bring in to the visitors.
    " Dozo [please]," she offered in Japanese.
    The grandparents were particularly pleased with the name of the baby. "Toshio is a good name," the old Mrs. Tanaka commented. Before leaving, they went to the cot again and watched the baby with obvious satisfaction. Now they had a grandson, their first grandchild, and they felt strong kinship to the baby. Tanaka's family line had been perpetuated.
    Alice was also glad to see their happy smiling faces.
    "This is midsummer season, almost O-Bon, when it is customary for us to take gifts to our superiors' homes. We have to do this twice a year; at this time of the year and again at year-end. You have at least to call on Mrs. Sasaki, the director's wife, with a suitable present. It may be advisable also to take a gift to Managing Director Sato's house, for Mr. Sato is in charge of our department," Saburo explained to Alice.
    "Must I go and distribute gifts myself like Santa Claus? I've never met Mrs. Sasaki, let alone Mrs. Sato." Alice's reply had a tone of protest.
    "That doesn't matter. You know everybody else in the company does that; some of us even have our wives call on the wives of the president and vice-presidents over and above the wives of our immediate bosses."
    "But I never did that sort of thing in London." Alice was not convinced.
    "Well, things were a little bit different while we were abroad. We went more by Western custom. But even in London I knew for a fact that some of my colleagues took presents to the manager's home regularly.
    "In the Head Office the practice is so common that we simply cannot do otherwise. We must try to stay in the good graces of my bosses, even to curry their favor, or else my chances of promotion may suffer. "
    "What do I have to take? Alice inquired.
    "Usually a carton box containing dried bonito fish, a bottle or two of whisky or brandy, or a box of assorted tinned foods. In your case a bottle of imported Scotch whisky may be in order. Big department stores are now doing brisk business selling these semi-annual gift items."
    So Alice one muggy summer afternoon went to Director Sasaki's home in Setagaya, a suburb of Tokyo. Though Saburo had given her a direction map, Alice had a hard time locating the house. Difficulty was due not so much to lack of street names as to the irregular and haphazard numbering of houses. She went back and forth along narrow lanes and side streets until she finally got to Sasaki's house.
    Her high-heeled shoes were almost ruined after walking over the pebble-strewn surface of the suburban road. Nor were her shoes the only victims. Alice's best summer dress was drenched with perspiration.
    After a brief self-introduction on the threshold of the house, Alice left the seasonal gift with Mrs. Sasaki, a shy and retiring person with whom Alice was not likely to have much to do in the future. As a matter of fact, Saburo had instructed Alice not to stay too long with Mrs. Sasaki but to take leave soon after she delivered the gift in the entrance hall. Japanese protocol demanded that. Hence the visit was brief and perfunctory in the extreme. Alice thought that a delivery boy from the department store could have done the job just as well.
    One day the hot-water boiler and pipes in the Tozai compound broke down. The caretaker said that they could be repaired within a day or two. A week had passed but still there was no hot water for the bath. The maid boiled enough hot water in the kitchen for the