Convenience Store Woman

At the restaurant, Shiraha notes that society does not allow “foreign objects.” He drinks jasmine tea that Keiko places in front of him, as he is unwilling to move. He continues to describe himself as a victim, noting that other men make fun of him for doing casual work and only experiencing sex from in his mid-30s. Keiko notes that he is a step away from being a sex offender, and yet can only see himself as a victim. She doesn’t understand why he is taking his frustration out on her since she herself is not defensive of society; she tells him that it must be hard to be him. Shiraha explains that the only reason he wants to get married is so no one bothers him anymore. He explains his goal of finding an investor for an online business he knows will be successful—but refuses to describe to anyone, lest they steal it.

Keiko questions Shiraha following society’s rules rather than living his own life. He snaps at her, claiming that women have it easier than men—that men need to have more money, more children. Keiko questions the point of marriage if it doesn’t actually solve anything. Shiraha bangs his fist on the table and says he’s done historical research; he proceeds to make sweeping statements about people who don’t fit in being banished and strong men “winning” the prettiest women. Keiko simply responds “oh”—but recognizes Shiraha’s talk of cycles, as the convenience store constantly changes while remaining the same (65). Shiraha asks Keiko how she can be so unashamed, since she is past marriage age and still working at a convenience store. He notes that as a man, he can still make a comeback, unlike her. He adds that he wants coffee, not tea, and Keiko leaves to get him a cup.

When Keiko returns, she asks Shiraha if he would want to get together with her, since all he wants is a marriage of convenience that will get people off his back. He notes that he cannot get aroused for her, but she says that marriage is merely about paperwork, not love or sex. She tells him that his views of society are probably accurate and compares society to the convenience store: In the store, one gets a manual on how to dress and behave, just as society requires people to look and act normal. In both cases, one gets punished for not fitting in. Shiraha says such a world is painful, but Keiko notes that anyone fighting society must be sincere about how painful it is.

Keiko realizes that when people say they want to cure her, they want to eliminate the parts of her life that they find weird. She’d been asked why she wasn’t married 14 times in the past two weeks and why she was still doing part-time work 12 times; by “marrying” Shiraha, she could at least reduce the former. She also admits to wanting some kind of change, whether good or bad. Shiraha does not answer and instead stares at his coffee.

After a while, Keiko gets up to leave, but Shiraha stops her. He tells her that he’s behind on rent and cannot return to his parents’ home in Hokkaido like he used to, as his brother and sister-in-law are now living there with their own children. Shiraha’s sister-in-law dislikes him and prevents him from getting money from the family anymore; he considers her a parasite living off of his brother. He rambles, and a bored Keiko worries she will not get enough sleep for her shift the next day. She tells Shiraha he can move in with her as long as he pays for food. He starts to ramble again, but she drags him back home before it gets too late.

At her apartment, Keiko notices how bad Shiraha smells and demands he take a shower. Then, Keiko calls her sister to tell her a man is in her apartment. Keiko’s sister is delighted and congratulates her. This surprises Keiko, as she never assumed her sister cared about her progressing in traditional life as much as their parents did. She even asks if Keiko is getting married soon.

Keiko wishes her sister had simply given her clear instructions on how to be conventional from the beginning.

Shiraha has no clothes to wear, so Keiko gives him a top from her old convenience store uniform and some short pants; she puts his clothes in the washing machine. The apartment is small and hot, but she tells Shiraha that it makes sense for him to stay there. She tells him about the call with her sister and how quickly she jumped to conclusions. He is perplexed. Keiko offers him a dented can of coffee, as she only buys products the store cannot sell to customers. She tells him he can sleep on an old futon; Shiraha says he is a stickler for cleanliness and that he does not like that she called her sister, since he is a man and should have control over his life. Keiko says he can leave, but he stammers again. She tells him to do what he wants and prepares for bed. As she dreams of the convenience store, she hears Shiraha less and less.

In the morning, Shiraha is still in the apartment. To Keiko’s surprise, he is still there when she returns from her shift, idly drinking a dented soda. She tells him how excited her sister is about their supposed arrangement. Upon hearing this, Shiraha reverts to his usual self, criticizing Keiko for being a virgin in her 30s who works at a convenience store and suggesting that her sister would rather she live with any man than live her actual life. He rants about Keiko being a burden to society. To Keiko, the rant seems little more than a random assortment of words.

Shiraha then tells Keiko that her plan isn’t a bad one. He clarifies that she is a loser who will be unable to fund his business or satisfy him sexually, but their interests do coincide. He tells her to hide him, no longer wanting to do anything for the rest of his life; he just wants to live.

Keiko admits that she is afraid of having to explain herself to another new manager, and Shiraha confidently tells her that his presence will keep society satisfied. He also says he will not help with payments because his end of the deal is providing cover for her. She notes that it would be too much for her to demand anything anyway, since he’d be like a pet. He asks for food, and she heats up leftovers. Shiraha likens the leftovers to dog food.

Keiko senses that Shiraha is a fraud, but realizes it is convenient to have him around. At Miho’s place, Keiko tells everyone that a man has moved in with her, and everyone is ecstatic to hear it. She tells them that he doesn’t work, and they say that such men are usually sweeter than career-minded men—and usually change when they become fathers. Everything about the new Keiko is easy for her friends to understand. But to Keiko, their words make her feel like they are describing someone completely different from herself. She lets them talk about her, painfully aware that up to this point, they’d thought of her as an outsider. All she offers to the conversation is an occasional “I see” in Sugawara’s tone (79).

Since adopting Shiraha, Keiko feels like life at the convenience store is going better too. However, feeding two people gets expensive, so she excitedly asks for additional shifts on Friday and Sunday. Manager #8 is not legally allowed to let Keiko work more, so he encourages her to seek a second job at another Smile Mart should she need more money. He still needs to get Shiraha’s pay and personal effects to him, and Keiko makes a mistake by saying she can bring them to him. Shiraha had specifically told her not to mention him to anyone at the convenience store because it interferes with his goal of being hidden. The manager asks if she is in contact with him, but then the store becomes filled with customers. Keiko rushes to the register to help out a new employee.

After the rush, Keiko notices that there are not enough chicken skewers ready for a promotional sale; she informs Manager #8 and Mrs. Izumi, who are in the backroom. They ignore Keiko’s comment in lieu of Mrs. Izumi asking if what she’s heard about Keiko and Shiraha is true. Keiko keeps trying to tell them about the chicken skewers, but the two persist in asking questions about how long they’ve been dating, who approached whom, and such. Keiko shouts that the only thing that matters is that no one has prepared chicken skewers yet, and that Shiraha is merely living with her. They seem surprised, and Keiko is shocked that they would put gossip above an important promotion. Emotional, she rushes out to start making skewers, telling new employee Tuan that the store can still reach its goal of selling 100 skewers if they work hard. The evening shift workers made a cardboard display for the promotion, and Keiko rushes to hang it.

As customers enter the store, Manager #8 and Mrs. Izumi remain in the backroom. Keiko and Tuan announce the promotion to everyone.

On her way home, Keiko buys groceries. She finds Shiraha sitting fully clothed in the dry bathtub, watching a movie on his tablet. He explains the tub is the only place in the apartment free of insects and then remarks about how late she is. Keiko explains that as she tried to leave, Manager #8 and Mrs. Izumi kept asking questions about Shiraha and insisting that all four of them go out for drinks sometime. Shiraha is upset that Keiko revealed his situation, as he thinks that Manager #8 and Mrs. Izumi will try to drag him out of hiding. He warns Keiko that her coworkers likely considered her too weird to confront—but will do so now. He also insists that she can’t throw him out because she would be judged even more harshly. Shiraha says he long wanted revenge on parasitic women, and that he’ll get revenge on society by being a parasite to Keiko.

Keiko doesn’t understand Shiraha and delivers his meal to the bathroom. Eating by herself, Keiko finds her chewing extremely loud because she had recently been surrounded by convenience store sounds. She pictures the store and hears its music within her.

Everyone at the store learns about Shiraha, and Manager #8 continually pesters Keiko about him. Keiko becomes increasingly annoyed, as she feels he has downgraded her from a valued employee to a conventional woman. Manager #8 and Mrs. Izumi have fun criticizing Shiraha’s résumé with her.

Keiko notices that the store no longer has a pleasing sound, as though it is being interfered with by an outside cacophony. New employee Tuan has begun to absorb the characteristics of the store in its current form, asking Keiko questions about her “husband” and whether or not they want a baby. Only Smile Mart’s customers remained unchanged and continue to allow Keiko to be a convenience store worker; her coworkers have become truly normal in her eyes.

A month after Keiko’s call with her sister, the latter shows up to Keiko’s apartment to lecture Shiraha. Keiko’s sweet sister seems tense, this visit being the first time in months that Keiko has seen her sister without her baby. She comes off as someone who has misplaced something.

Keiko goes to the bathroom with food to bring to Shiraha, telling her sister that she’s keeping him in there because it is too crowded in their apartment. Shiraha has turned the bathroom into his own bedroom, and now both of them take showers at public places. Keiko tells her sister that it is convenient having Shiraha around because no one questions her life anymore. Keiko’s sister begins to cry; she wonders if Keiko will ever be cured.

Keiko’s sister asks if she’ll see a counselor, but Keiko notes that the one she saw as a child did not help. She still doesn’t understand what she needs to be cured of. Keiko’s sister says she’s gotten weirder ever since becoming a convenience store worker and begs her to be normal. Keiko asks for instructions on how to be normal, wondering if she should quit working at the convenience store, kick Shiraha out, or not. She says she’ll do anything, as long as her sister’s directions are specific.

While Keiko’s sister continues to cry, Keiko eats a custard pudding just to have something to do. Shiraha comes out of the bathroom and tells Keiko’s sister that he and Keiko just had a fight. He claims Keiko found out that he had connected with an ex-girlfriend on Facebook and gone drinking with her; a furious Keiko refused to sleep with him and forced him in the bathroom. Keiko’s sister clutches Shiraha and says she understands. When she heard Keiko was living with a loser who didn’t have a job, it was bad enough—but now she knows he’s unfaithful too. With a grin, Keiko’s sister begins to lay into Shiraha about how furious she is. Keiko realizes that her sister would be happier having a normal sibling with problems than an abnormal sibling who is content, since normality is easier to understand. She also notices that her sister’s speech pattern has changed and wonders who she is absorbing these days. Shiraha lies that he is looking for work and that he and Keiko might get married, but Keiko’s sister continues to scream, not even wiping the tears and snot from her upper lip.

Staring at Shiraha and her sister with pudding still in her hand, Keiko has reached her limit: She will quit her job, despite it having made her sister happy when she first got it.

After work the next day, Keiko finds Shiraha kneeling formally across the table from his sister-in-law. She tells Keiko that she covered Shiraha’s unpaid bills from his old apartment and demands that he get a job to pay her back. Keiko realizes that one of the reasons why Shiraha is hiding is debt. Shiraha’s sister-in-law tells him that she got her husband to install a tracking device on Shiraha’s phone because she knew he would eventually need someone to bail him out. She asks about his relationship with Keiko, and Shiraha repeats a variation of the lie he told Keiko’s sister. Keiko is initially confused, thinking Shiraha has a girlfriend whom he is planning to marry—but then she realizes he is talking about her.

When Keiko tells Shiraha’s sister-in-law that she works at a convenience store, she says Keiko is far too old for that. She says that Keiko and Shiraha are meant for each other but advises them to get jobs, get married, or both. She concludes her advice by insisting that Keiko get her life in order for her own good.

Keiko thinks Shiraha’s sister-in-law is kinder than he let on. Shiraha lies again, saying that he is setting up an online business but will become the breadwinner after he and Keiko have children; he adds that he already told Keiko to get a proper job. Shiraha’s sister-in-law leaves, telling him that it’s good that he has a partner and threatening him to pay her back. With her gone, Shiraha celebrates getting away. He grabs Keiko and tells her that she’s lucky: Now, everyone will assume she is a typical, sexually active human rather than a single, virginal convenience store worker.

Keiko asks Shiraha to move his pillows so she can shower at home for the first time in weeks, while he continues to ramble about how lucky she is. The sound of draining water removes the last traces of the convenience store sounds. This is then replaced with silence that sounds like music to her. This silence, however, is interrupted by the floor creaking under Shiraha.