I was walking by an apartment building on the way to work and suddenly a loud crack sounded behind me and to my right. It sounded like a rock splitting, or maybe plastic snapping loudly. I turned to look, and sitting on the pavement perfectly aligned with the front door of the apartment building was a raw (slightly flattened) chicken breast. It could have been the thigh, however – I’m not exactly sure. Some other people walking to work glanced over, but I think we all had a similar expression on our face: what a weird fucking neighborhood this is.
The area around Hyogo station doesn’t have a great reputation for high class. Hyogo station is north of quite a few big factories (one of which currently employs me). Many of the people walking around dress as if they are on their way to a blue collar job – wearing towels on their head and flared bell bottom trousers that are in style for carpenters and builders. On my daily commute I often see weird stuff – once I saw a luxury sedan stop and drop off two women wearing elegant cocktail dresses. They got out of the car and walked to their apartment at 5:30 am. Another time I bumped into a group of high school kids smoking and drinking beer (also at 5:30 am). It is a strange part of Kobe, and therefore makes it a great place to walk through every morning.
So about this falling chicken, during the rest of my walk to work I had something to ponder. First, was I the target? Naturally if I am on the top of the building trying to throw a chicken breast at a pedestrian target then a Caucasian with lighter hair is a natural draw to the eye. Based on the timing of the drop I’d say it was possible, but they missed by quite a bit – it hit the pavement more than six meters away from me. The apartment building I passed was quite tall – more than twenty stories high – and combined with the loudness of the impact I’d say that it was dropped from a very high elevation. That would make it hard to be accurate. So why was a chicken falling? Somebody was too lazy to dispose of it upstairs? Was somebody throwing it around the apartment and they forgot that the window was open?
Plenty of questions for the rest of my walk to work. What a weird part of town.
