Thursday, April 24, 2003

*... ame wa dame da ...*
When it comes to umbrellas, I am a staunch socialist. Kind of a "one for all and all for one" point of view. Or maybe more like "take a penny, leave a penny". Or something along that train of thought. Few people carry their umbrellas with them when they go into stores or restaurants, so there is usually a big pile of them out the front door. And many many people forget their umbrellas. So by this, I am not sure why so many Japanese are buying new umbrellas when there are so many abandoned. Knowing this, I don't feel so bad when I get caught in inclement weather and have to "borrow" an umbrella from the plethora waiting for me. When I am finished with it, I leave it for someone else to use. Share and share alike, right? I have done my civic duty by redistributing about 15-20 umbrellas across Niigata and even across Japan. I originally contributed an umbrella that I brought from home (I learned my lesson after the tragic China fiasco... before I went, my sis gave me a little travel umbrella which I left at home, only to find Beijing drowning in buckets of rain, and I begrudgingly had to buy an umbrella which cost me a whole, like, 80 cents. The injustice!) and my umbrella is now hopefully keeping someone else dry somewhere. This, of course, justifies my borrowing... Ah, who am I kidding, Japan has made me into a common thief. Luckily not everyone around here thinks like me (that would be trouble, now, wouldn't it?!). Aware of this, I felt perfectly safe leaving my granny bike unlocked and with a basketful of goodies outside a store while I went inside. I was pretty confident no one was going to take the bike, but just to be sure, I parked it next to a car that had the engine running, the doors unlocked, and no one inside. Now, if you were a thief, (and it was raining), which would you choose? It's all about strategy, folks.

5:02 PM

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

*... err... umm... nevermind ...*
so forget everything I said yesterday. Bus drivers are a unique breed. They're crazy (or drunk? or possibly both?) bats outta hell, and they are the reason I don't eat breakfast in the morning, for fear of losing it 20 minutes later.
4:39 PM

Monday, April 21, 2003

*... thankyou, mister bus driver, thanks for the ride ...*
I can quite determinedly say that I could never do a job with too much routine in it, especially if that job consisted of operating heavy machinery. The exception to this rule is my tour guide gig; I could fly through 2 hours with perfect timing delivering my lines, and still be off daydreaming about what I was going to eat for lunch. But if, for example, I would have had to give a tour while driving a bus or something, well I just don't think I could do it. That's why I have decided to give people who do such monotonous jobs a little credit, and perhaps forgive them when they have an off-day. My bus driver today would be a great representative of this: not only did he forget to stop at my stop (a little "uhh, sumimasen?" (excuse me?) helped him remember) but he also tried to take off twice when rather frail, old ladies were getting off the bus, causing one to drop about a foot straight down (that's a long way, for a frail old lady) and hit the pavement with what was left of her knees, the other one falling on her knee and cane. Lucky she had that cane. He also starting rolling backwards when I was getting off the bus, but thankfully I'm a little more nimble than a frail old woman. Thank goodness for that.
4:51 PM