Last night on the way home from Kobe, something weird happened. We were walking over to the vending machine before the next Sanyo train showed up. We suddenly noticed a crazy lady, making weird sounds, holding a cigarette, and kind of chasing some other lady around. The other lady was trying to get away, but the platform was crowded and the crazy lady kicked her a few times. People all around looked shocked and stood back, just in case the crazy lady went after them.
Kuniko and I went for the nearest train conductor, but by the time we explained the situation and brought him over, the crazy lady was propped up on a wall doing nothing but staring into space. The conductor looked at her for a while, and then just shrugged and went back to his train.
When the next train came, everyone got on board and watched the crazy lady standing there spacing out as we pulled out of the station.
What a strange situation. Obviously things are different here in Japan. If the crazy lady started kicking me or Kuniko I would probably have had to do something physical to keep her away and protect ourselves. The lady who was getting kicked just tried to escape. Either way, the crazy lady was dangerous to other people – why is she walking around loose?
There’s (comparatively) a lot of crazy people walking around Japan that probably should be in an institution somewhere. There is a crazy guy that stands on the Sanyo platform all day long – he must buy a ticket in the morning and just stand there. He was this strange smile but he doesn’t really look at anyone, he just spaces out. Anyway, it makes you think about some of the more subtle differences between America and Japan.
