Quick update

This is gonna be really short, but I felt for all of those who cared how I did on that test I had to get 100% on or else face immediate death—bad news, I didn’t get a 100%. In fact, she wrote “zannen” at the top of it, which means “regrettable” or “disappointing”. I hope she was kidding because I got a 98% on the test, by far my best effort of the year. My friend Johannes got a 99% and my other friend Miha got a 98.5%. I think the teacher was legitimately disappointed that no one got 100%.

four very quick subway stories.

1) A few weeks ago there was a guy hunched over on the train in the morning when I got on, but I didn’t think anything of it because most people sleep on the train, especially in the morning. But suddenly three station attendants rush into our car, and start asking if the guy is okay. He keeps saying “yeah, I’m fine” but they don’t leave him alone. Finally he looks up and he’s covered in BLOOD. Since I saw it around his stomach first, I thought he got stabbed or something, but then I followed all the way up to his face and realized he just had a really bad bloody nose.

2) Riding back from school there was a very tired old man sitting next to me on the subway. His glasses were hanging half off his face, and he looked ridiculous. A few minutes later, when he shifted a little in his sleep, his glasses fell on the floor. Now I was looking at them, debating if I should wake this guy up to give him his glasses, but then realizing that if he was drunk, like I assumed he was, he may get angry with me. There was a balding salary man sitting across from me and when we made eye contact, he kind of looked at the glasses, as if to say “pick up those glasses for that old man.” But I looked back at him with my eyes and said, “I don’t want to talk to this guy if he wakes up because he might start talking really fast and I wont understand him”. The business man replied with his eyes, “Just pick ‘em up, you’re right there.” And at that point I looked away, ending our telepathic conversation. I remember thinking it would be so easy, but I really felt uncomfortable “interfering” with the sleeping, drunk old man—I kept imagining he would get angry with me.

Well, just then the old man managed to step on his own glasses and break them. Now I felt bad because his glasses were broken in two pieces, and I could have prevented it. He was still out cold by the time I was at my stop. As I got up to leave, the business man also got up to leave and bend down and picked up the broken glasses. He then gently woke the old man up and gave them to him. The old man thanked him, and spoke very politely and I immediately regretted not helping when I had the chance. There are many ways to thank a person in Japanese and the old man’s reply was along the lines of “I’m sorry for unconvincing you, thank you.”

3) The other day during after just getting on the train, there was some commotion behind me so I turned around to watch. I saw a man in his 40’s trying to pull an elderly man onto the train, while the elderly man grasped tightly to the first guy’s coat. I thought he was trying to pull the guy on the train so they wouldn’t miss it, like a parent pulls a child before the doors close, but then I realized they were both red in the face. The younger guy yelled something that sounded like “I’m not negotiating/consulting” and the older man pulled him back off the train onto the platform. Everyone was watching at this point and they started shoving each other. The old man was grabbing the other guy’s collar and they began yelling in that really cool Japanese style that foreigners have no chance at understanding. They managed to separate themselves before the doors closed, with the younger man remaining on the train and the older man on the platform. It was a pretty exciting way to start my day.

4) Finally, this is the shortest story but it happened yesterday. I man sat down next to a pretty woman on the train and they immediately started talking, so I’m assuming they were probably friends or something even though they got on the train at different stops. They were laughing and giggling, and as the man was getting ready to get off the train, the both started bowing while still seated. They’re bowing back and forth, towards each other, and as the man stands in front of the sitting woman, she gives one more HUGE bow and as she returns to her up right position, she smacks the back of her head against the window of the train. Now it didn’t look painful at all—but it was funny. She started laughing, the guy started laughing, and it was pretty much Japan in a nutshell—these people are polite to the point they do bodily harm.

I love riding the trains, even if they’re cramped, hot, and I ride them forever. I’m really gonna miss it.