Rush hour
So far the most exciting and most painful part of my life has been commuting. My host family live in a suburb of Chiba (which, although it's a big city in its own right, is in turn a suburb of Tokyo). The commute takes about 1hr 45mins, but this is completely normal for anyone who works in Tokyo. That thought doesn't make it any more enjoyable though!
At the station where I get on, people keep piling on to the train until you can't physically fit any more on, and so some people get left on the platform. However, this keeps on happening at all of the stations between Chiba and Tokyo, without anybody getting off. How is that possible?
Then, once you're on the train, things take a turn for the bizarre. Everybody, standing up and holding on to the handrail, falls into a deep and peaceful slumber. There's nothing cuter in the world than the sight of all those poor sleepy salarymen snoring gently to themselves, with the one gaijin in the middle, standing head and shoulders above them and looking bemused.
Part of the reason why I look so bemused is that the train system is fiendishly complicated. I keep thinking I've worked it out, and then suddenly the whole thing will turn sideways on me and I'm back to square one. But once I've conquered the greater Tokyo rail and subway system, it'll definitely be something to put on my CV.
Good news! I've just been told that I didn't fail the Japanese test I took yesterday. I was convinced I'd failed. This means that I can take afternoon classes, and so I don't have to deal with rush hour any more. I haven't taken any classes yet, but school seems ok. The only problem is that everyone I've met who is better at Japanese than me (i.e. everyone) is very smug about it, and likes to tell me repeatedly how much Japanese they know. Either that, or how much they know about obscure anime. Combine this with the fact that most of them are from California, the Hippest state in the Coolest country in the goddam world, and you end up with some very irritating people indeed.
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I'm very happy
'Cos I did not fail my test.
First class this p.m.!
posted by Chris @ 9:22 AM
5 Comments:
sleeping business men;
how come when their stop arrives,
they suddenly wake?
hey, can we branch out into tanka? i need freedom to express myself, man!
Man, too easy. 3 Minute Rule.
I was going to allow tanka, but then I discovered the following sentence on the American Tanka website:
"When many people first discover tanka, they experience a revelation about the power of poetry in their lives, as if they at last understand the transformative emotional significance both of reading others' words and of writing one's own poetry."
Now it's definitely not allowed.
Sorry to be writing most of the comments on my own posts, but I noticed today that the station next to Chiba is called Hon-Chiba, which translates as "the source of Chiba". So, to answer Andy's question, that's where all the chiba comes from.
If you are going to restrict our creative yearnings, the least you could do is enforce your fascist rules in kaiku form!
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