So I woke up a bit late... Nothing new there. The day couldn't be uglier if it tried... overcast and gray, giving the looming apartment buildings a menacing look, like Oz's haunted forest. I get onto a too-crowded monorail train; am pressed tighter and tighter at each stop. At my school's stop I politely shove my way out of the box. I walk down the stairs. On the way out of the ticket gate I accidentally shove my pass into the metal casing around the slot, entrapping it in a way very difficult to reverse.
Of course, the pass-card-in/Forrest-out process is usually very fluid. So even though I screwed it up back there, I have already gone far enough here to slam the doors shut up there, and set off an alarm in the central office. Doh.
Where is the rewind button when you need it? Ctrl+Z, please.
I prize the pass card loose, put it in the slot, and escape. Funny how I never had this type of problem in Hendersonville, North Carolina, USA.
Somewhere between Furuichi and Fudoin-mae eki it has started to rain. At least I did not forget an umbrella. And at least I did not choose the one umbrella (out of the family's fourteen or so) that is broken. I will make it to school, a bit late, and mostly dry.
I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around, expecting to see the Station Conductor expecting an explanation for my strange actions back at the gate. It is one of my classmates. She gives me a smile, and pulls a scrap of paper from her pocket. "I usually go to school by bike," she reads. This particular girl likes to give me random bits of information about herself in this manner. The trusty paper comes out, and "aa, so, eto, I have one brother."
It is decided. We will trek up and up and up to Shisho together.
Have you ever been struck to do something out of the ordinary? Something that some part of you wants to do, but doesn't seem at all sensible? Next time that happens, do it. Don't listen to that voice that says: "be rational." Ignoring sensibility could make your day. Even if that means
Siiiiiiiinging in the rain, just siiiiiiiinging in the rain, What a gloooooorious feeeeeeeeeeling, I'm haaaaaappy again... oh yeah... Happily, after this fountain of song, my companera was not giving me the how-did-you-even-get-a-visa look. She liked it, so I sang some more. I don't really know much more of that song, so I mixed in some of "Love Machine," a popular song here.
OK, so no literal shaft of light broke through the clouds, no rainbow majestically arced through the sky... But singing that song gave me the wonderful illusion that everything here makes sense. Point being, there is true happiness to be found in a culture so far from your own.
M. Forrest D. Oliphant
PS All I want for Christmas is... a postcard. If you each send me a postcard from where you are now... I will be the happiest gaijin in all of Asaminami ward.
PPS "Shisho" means "municipal-commercial," i.e. Hiroshima Municipal Commercial High School, my school.
PPPS Sorry about sending two copies of Issue 8. I messed up sending half of them, but I did not know which half... so I sent it to everyone again.