Convenience Store Woman

A convenience store (konbini in Japanese) called Smile Mart offers sounds that please 36-year-old narrator Keiko Furukura. She responds to the sounds as she arranges a display of rice balls. Keiko is a part-time employee who can anticipate exactly what each customer will buy and what she needs to do to assist in any purchases. She goes to the register to assist with two purchases with extreme courtesy. Keiko considers herself a cog in society and notes that others refer to the current time of day as morning. Keiko’s supervisor, Mrs. Izumi, is another employee around her age, not a manager. She is only in charge because the store is short-staffed, and the manager has to work nights. As the morning rush ends, Keiko returns to stacking rice balls.

Keiko does not remember much about life prior to becoming a convenience store woman. Her family was an average suburban one, but everyone considered her a little “weird” as a child. As a young girl, Keiko and other children found a dead bird in the park. She picked it up and told her mother that they should grill it as yakitori to feed her father. Her mother was speechless and suggested they bury the bird instead.