Post 7: Packers Setting

Packer set the stage of her story by first describing the neighborhood from which Dina, her protagonist, hails. This picture, to me, showed the despair and hopelessness of her situation that she thought she could fix through escaping to Japan. The abandoned buildings neglected by the city with their slew of broken promises of fixing them. Packer wrote, "she harbored the vague hope that if she came back to the neighborhood they'd get renovated".
Japan on the other hand, with its' rich customs and culture, seemed as if it could offer her a better chance of success in life. Packer did indicate the senselessness of her choice by writing, "she didn't want to say it, because it made no practical sense, but in the end she went to Japan for the delicate sake cups, resting in her hand like a blossom; she went to Japan for loveliness." To Dina, this was quite the opposite of her world as she knew it.
Packer then talked of the treatment of the gaijin in Japan and explained the trials of obtaining and maintaining a good job there. In order for Dina to survive, she had to sell her possessions and suffer through hunger. This made her miss and reminisce of the home she left behind for adventure. The lowest point surfaced when prostitution was her final resort. Home was not so bad after all. The hardships and the experiences Dina got in Japan taught her a valuable lesson in the end, the grass is not greener on the other side.