Lesson #175 – Events in a day with a police named Toshiyuki Saejima part 3.

(Toshiyuki) Saejima is greeting (Eikichi) Onizuka at an unidentified harbour, and exclaimed that he has been waiting for him after they have not met for a long time. As he leads Onizuka towards one of the ships at the harbour, he started to tell Onizuka that he now is doing a side job about helping a “friend” to “import” products and goods into Japan, but now he lacks help and have to do everything by himself, thus that’s why he asks Onizuka for help. Saejima started to reminisce about their past and how he can only depends on Onizuka and friends from their wild days, when suddenly Onizuka asked him on what kind of “things” he is importing, and whether he is doing something illegal. Saejima becomes silent, and suddenly he asks Onizuka whether he doesn’t believe on him. He then reminded Onizuka that both of them are brothers-in arms when they are in high school, plus he is now a policeman, the defender of the civilians. :)

Saejima started to walk away while commenting that he is very sad because Onizuka, one of his oldest friends, have a suspicious feeling about him. He then wondered whether Onizuka still regards him as a trusted friend. Suddenly, a ringing phone can be heard from the bag Saejima is carrying with him. He then opened the bag to show a lot of handphones inside the bag, takes one of them and started to speak with the caller at a secluded corner. He greets the caller, thanked him for treating him with a Thai-style bath, and started to praise the “power” of a girl named Laura, adding that he never feels such ‘excitement’ before. Saejima then started to sneer, asking whether the caller, obviously the “friend” Saejima had told Onizuka earlier, wanted additional 2 ‘packets’ of something unspecified. After getting the confirmation, Saejima hanged up and started to board the ship as he tells Onizuka to help him quickly because their schedule is tight.

Onizuka then started to ask Saejima on the meaning of the word ‘packets’ he used in the phone conversation earlier, and Saejima becomes silent again as if he tried to think about something. Suddenly Saejima screamed, saying that he is talking about bean curds (webmaster note: or tofu or whatever. This one is very tricky to be translated to English). He then asked Onizuka on what kind of things else apart of bean curds that uses the word ‘packets’ as adjectives and he then continued to say that the bean curd they are talking about are made from soy beans grown at the United States. He asked Onizuka again whether he understands what he (Saejima) tried to tell him, and started to explain again that bean curds has been proven to be able to reduce cholesterol levels in human bloods.

As Saejima rummaged through a box while throwing out some exotic masks in the process, he started to complain about how Onizuka always look down suspiciously on him since Onizuka becomes a teacher, and commented that maybe the rumors that he heard about teachers being so isolated from the updates of society is true after all. He then tells Onizuka that the current modern generation nowadays always emphasizes on their health, and that Onizuka who always eats high-calories hamburgers will not appreciate that. He tells Onizuka to try and reads some health magazines in his spare time when suddenly his hand phone rings again. Saejima picks it up and sees a text message about the ‘order’ from the ‘friend’ that called him earlier, and Saejima promptly throws the hand phone away, so that Onizuka will not ask anything.

Saejima started to fake a laugh, asking Onizuka not to interrogate him anymore and to help him instead to handle some products. In the next panel, a box full with branded handbags is shown, and in the next one, Saejima is seen bringing one box of those handbags out from the ship. He started to comment, that when people thinks about imported products, their minds will automatically thinks about branded products. Then he commented that women will still think highly of branded products even that they are in the midst of economic downturn. Saejima tells Onizuka that there’s 5 boxes of the handbags still present inside the ship, and asked him to help and promised that he will take him to a famous restaurant known for its steaks after everything is in order.

Suddenly Onizuka asked him on why the Channel bags are so soft, and Saejima looks sideways as he tried to think of another excuse. Suddenly he laughed again, saying that the bag is the newest ever design, adding that the Prada handbags are much softer. Sheepishly, he asked Onizuka to watch more TV because a special TV show had introduced such products in Japan terrestrial TVs. He then puts the box inside a waiting van as he tells Onizuka not to make assumptions that the handbags are fakes, and accused Onizuka of being too suspicious of people around him. Saejima warned Onizuka that he will become bald like Abe (webmaster note: mentioned in volume 8) if Onizuka continues to think like he does right now.

He then asked Onizuka whether he remembered him telling Onizuka about Abe opening some sex massage pubs around Koiwa and Akabone districts (webmaster note: also mentioned in volume 8) where he have his dancers to dance without any panties on. He continued to say that for some time, the business seems to be thriving but in the end the massive effects of the economic downturn take its toll eventually. Saejima then tells Onizuka that at first, Abe managed to open 5 branches of such pubs but now only one is left, that’s it, the first one that Abe first opened. Now Abe’s head has gone nearly bald because of the enormous pressure he have to endure, and to make it worse, his widely known powerful sexual prowess is also affected, to the effect that Abe now needs Viagra every time he wants to have sex. Saejima pointed out that the moral about Abe’s story is that even that Abe both of them are generally not busy men, they are also prone to excessive pressure, so Onizuka should be careful in the future or ends up to become just like Abe.

Saejima then remembered something, and started to rummage the boxes again as the commented that he have some medicine that will help to defuse stress, and Onizuka can have some at a low special price. Onizuka declined, and upon hearing that Saejima withdraws his offer and then tells Onizuka that they still have some beautiful ‘flowers’ full with colors to take care of. In the next panel, a box full with the mentioned ‘flowers’ is shown, and in the next panel, Saejima is shown carrying 2 of the boxes. Saejima smirked, saying that the ‘flowers’ he is holding now can only be obtained from overseas, but the trend shows that the ‘flowers’ has become popular amongst housewives. He then asked Onizuka whether he understand now that he (Saejima) will not engage in illegal activities, so Onizuka should stop being suspicious at him.

Suddenly, Saejima is shocked when Onizuka seems to comment that the ‘flowers’ is actually poppy, which is the main ingredients to make heroine. Saejima becomes silent again, apparently to find excuses because his lies can be easily seen through. He suddenly laughed, with sweats all over his face, saying that the ‘flowers’ are not poppy like what Onizuka is thinking, and Saejima then tells Onizuka that the ‘flowers’ are actually called ‘poppy’ (webmaster note: Saejima twisted the facts by rejecting the Japanese usage of the ‘flowers’ name, and substituted it with the ‘flowers’ English name instead, to give the impression that they are different. Remember, both names sound just the same in Japanese pronounciation). He then started to explain that the ‘flowers’ are imported from Zimbabwe and there, the ‘flowers’ are called African Poppy. Saejima then asked Onizuka whether he remembers seeing the ‘flowers’ in the flower theme park at Chiba prefecture when they are racing there in the past, adding that the flowers at the park and the ones he is holding looks like the same, because they come from the same genus. After giving the lengthy explanation, Saejima started to laugh, as he asked Onizuka whether he didn’t see TV programs about gardening at all. Then he tells Onizuka that Onizuka should consider trying gardening as a hobby, because it will help greatly to reduce the possibility of dementia when Onizuka is older. He also reminded Onizuka that he (Saejima) will never imports illegal things, because after all, he is a policeman.

Going on with their work, Saejima warned Onizuka that the boxes they have to deal with now are heavier, so he should exercise caution not to let the boxes to fall off his hands. Apparently, the warning comes a tad too late, as Saejima lashed at Onizuka for screwing up, and then screamed as the so-called “heavy” boxes tumbled down in a loud crash. In the next panel, some objects shaped like a handgun and covered with newspaper wrappers littered the floor, as Saejima is looking at the empty box in his hands and the wrapped objects on the floor. He then started to smoke and squats, as he thinks of the explanations he have to give to Onizuka now. He then suddenly turned his head toward Onizuka, laughed loudly and says that the objects littering the floor are hair dryers made by Sony. He hurriedly put all the wrapped objects back into the box, as he asked Onizuka whether he reads the “Dine” magazine who have the coverage about the new hairdryer, Sony’s first electrical appliances for the year which are exclusively for overseas market. Saejima explained that he had asked the ship’s captain to obtain some for him, because he (Saejima) is a pioneer for the future trend, and as an importer of imported product have to have a far sight of what will happen in the future.

Suddenly, Onizuka commented that the wrapped objects are not hair dryers because the objects don’t have any wires dangling out from it. Saejima become silent again as he tried to find another excuse for it, and he sharply replied that the new hair dryers from Sony doesn’t have any wires because it uses batteries. Saejima then asked Onizuka not to look down on Sony’s ability to innovate, and he takes one of the wrapped objects and demonstrated on how the so-called hairdryers works (without opening the wraps of course). He then puts the box filled with the ‘hair dryers’ inside the van as he accused Onizuka of thinking that the objects are guns. He pleaded for Onizuka not to judge things by only looking at their covers, commented that Onizuka has become overly suspicious, and then tells Onizuka that even he (Saejima) had committed lots of code ethics violations at the police station, Onizuka should not look suspiciously at him.

Another phone of his suddenly rings again, and now another ‘friend’ is on the line. Saejima greeted him and thanked the caller for a good deed in the past. Saejima then asked the caller whether he wants additional 2 “packets” of something, and Saejima agreed. He turned off the phone and smirked towards Onizuka. (webmaster note: He speaks in Mandarin, apparently Kanzaki is not the only one who knows Mandarin in this manga, that’s why he smirked because Onizuka will never be able to understand what he is saying on the conversation). He walked back to the ship, entering the basement floor as he commented that he had only recently getting new orders from a client on the phone. He tells Onizuka to be careful because the stairs to the basement is dark, and then tried to remember about the location where he should go. They arrived and in the dark, Saejima is puzzled because the ‘things’ he had put earlier on the warehouse has gone missing. He cursed, wondering on where the “things” has been hidden and eventually he managed to find it. Strange sounds started to emit from the darkness as Saejima exclaimed that he managed to “catch them”, and he asked Onizuka to turn on the light. Onizuka then turned the light on and Saejima is now shown holding 2 squirming pandas on each of his arms.

He walked out from the ship with the pandas as Saejima complained about the pandas squirming on his arms too much for comfort. He tried to coerce them to stop, adding that importing living things like them really make his life hell and promised to feed them bamboo leaves later if they stopped squirming. Suddenly Onizuka reminded him that under Washington Protocol (the protocol about import/export of animals under endangered species list), the import of panda is deemed illegal. The shocked Saejima is silent while trying to find yet another excuse while the pandas are still squirming on his arms. Saejima then laughed (yet again) as he blatantly lied about the pandas being only a fake, that’s it, the pandas are mechanical robots. He started to shake the panda around, saying that such mechanical pandas are famous in China, and lots of wealthy kids in Shanghai are playing with the pandas. He then asked Onizuka whether the fine craftsmanship really looks like real, and also whether Onizuka had watched the NHK documentary about the origins of robotic technology. Hearing that Onizuka doesn’t watch the documentary, he lashed at Onizuka for not wanting to watch TV at all.

Onizuka then asked about the whereabouts of the panda’s switches, and Saejima started pretending to look all over the “mecha” pandas looking for one. After he failed to find one, he bashed the heads of the pandas against each other, and the pandas stopped squirming, with bloods on their heads. Saejima smiled because the problem has been solved and he asked Onizuka about his views of the panda “robots”, adding that the pandas have some shock reaction mechanism built inside them that makes them stop after such shocks. He then commented that they are getting late, and the next job is to cart more robots, much superior than the “mecha” pandas earlier. He walked back to the basement, saying that the robots are made by Honda, As he opened a door, he tells Onizuka that the humanoid robot ASHIMO that has been unveiled some time ago amongst the fanfare with lots of girls has now been manufactured commercially also at China. He calls the “robots” to come out and lots of dirty-looking real people started to appear. Saejima then started to dump all the “robots” into the cramped van as he commented that the “robots” surely looks like too human. Onizuka asked them on why the “robots” can only speak Mandarin, and Saejima coolly replied that it’s because of the facts that the “robots” are manufactured in China.

He then tells Onizuka that their job has finished, and they only have to dump the “robots” in the back alley somewhere before carting the other goods to the “office”. Saejima then is shocked to see Onizuka walking away from him and he asked on where Onizuka is going. He pointed out that if Onizuka is going to the toilet, he is going the wrong way. He then realized that Onizuka wants to leave, and then screamed that if Onizuka wants to help him, he should have help until the very end, but Onizuka continued to walk away, ignoring Saejima with his Mandarin-speaking “robots”….

FINISHED