When the train arrived at Okubo station Tuesday morning, Kuniko and I were second in line. The doors opened, and as we started filing in some guy came walking in from the side and cut in. I was a little surprised – cutting into the line whenever you want is usually a privilege exercised by the elderly in Japan. Still, I didn’t think much about it until we lined up for the super rapid train in Nishi Akashi.
This time we were about fifth in line, which is normal for us. As the train doors opened, the same guy came walking over to the front. On the way he dropped his cigarette on the ground and the cut in front of everyone and went in. This time I paid a little more attention to see if he was retarded or something – what was his problem? He seemed normal enough. He was wearing a fur-lined jacket, a little taller than your normal Japanese guy. Maybe 35 years old, with dark skin that was starting to get potchy from all the tobacco he inhales. I wanted to give him some dirty looks, but he stood all the way on the other side of the train.
Kuniko got off in Kobe, and I went on to Sannomiya and changed trains at the Hanshin station. To my shock the guy came walking down the steps and started to look for a line just as my train was showing up. I geared myself up to block the guy out, but he picked a line down the platform a ways. I couldn’t tell if he cut into that line or not.
It didn’t really piss me off that much, but it made for some excitement on an otherwise very quiet commute. People in Japan generally follow the rules as much as possible, so when somebody does that it really stands out.
Today was the last day of exams, and once they wrapped up the students were really relieved. They ran around the school, did their sports clubs for the first time in a long time, and visited the staffroom to say hello to me and some of the other teachers. Three girls gave me love letters and chocolates – kind of like a leftover from Valentine’s Day and also a thank you for helping them pass their high school entrance exams.
The letters were cute – they usually wrote in English, sometimes with Japanese. Nothing in there too heavy, but I was a little surprised how some of them felt about me. They were harboring these crushes pretty well, because I had no clue whatsoever.
After school I went back home to Okubo, and Kuniko got off early so that we could go to Futami and get an eye exam. With the conclusion of my contract I won’t have a health plan for a little while, at least until Kuniko gets me set up on hers. I thought it would be a good time to pick up some contact lenses. Kuniko was also complaining of some problems seeing in one eye, so we both took the exams. Mine went just fine, and Kuniko’s vision turned out normal. As she put it, there are people with a lot worse vision than hers, and she’s not ready for contacts yet.
We also went to Ito Yokado afterwards, and bumped into Miyake sensei there. She said that she had a sore shoulder from playing Wii the other night. She looked really happy about it, though.
Finally we came home and had some cheap sushi for dinner from IY. We were both really tired from packing so much into these last few days of work. I have my last day at work tomorrow, and Kuniko leaves for New Zealand on Friday. It’s down to the wire for both of us. I was lucky enough to be able to go to sleep, but Kuniko stayed up and had to mark exams. Ick.
