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When Grannies Attack
Well, gosh, look at that. I haven't updated in a month. Shocking, isn't it?
I could go into my excuses...but they'll be much more fun to write out as entries. Suffice it to say, I traveled with my American family over Christmas break, then hung out in Tokyo for another week or so (give or take), and then moved into my new apartment in Motohasunuma and have been puttering around getting settled in. And that's my hiatus in a nutshell, folks, details to follow!
(In all honesty, I have a lot of free time now, being as there's no school until March and nobody in their right mind is going to hire me for five weeks. So I'm going to try to be a good girl and catch up on my backlog of experiences. Y'all don't mind if some of the stuff I write about is a few months old right? Right?)
Oh, and my anecdote for the day:
Back in September, Saitama Prefecture was still sweating feverishly beneath the weight of a dog-days summer that ended up lasting into October. As of this writing, Japanese winter (and its accomplice, Japanese lack of central heating) has taught me the fine arts of layering, proper scarf and glove use, and wearing really big fluffy sweaters and jackets all the time. At that time, however, my wardrobe was minimalist, meaning I wore as little as my sense of modesty could stand, and necessarily consisted of light'n'airy linen capris, sandals, delicate little shirts (many of them hand-me-downs from Mae no Steph), and hairstyles that kept my hair as far off my neck and face as possible. This fact will be fully relevant in a moment.
The Kasumigaseki train station is a popular meeting place for JSP students planning to go somewhere. As both the closest station to the college, and a stop on the dominant Tobu Tojo railway line (unfortunately having nothing technically to do with my LJ name), it's a convenient jumping-off point for nearly any adventure. When we JSPers have something planned, the default meetup spot that gets zinged around on our network of cell phones is almost always Kasumigaseki Station.
As it happened, one day I broke precedent by being the first student to arrive at the station. The ticket machines at the time were arrayed along the front wall, outdoors. After buying my ticket, I had very little to do but stand around; to pass the time, I looked over the timetable nailed to the wall, on which all train times were listed, and tried to read station names.
At some point, I became aware that a teeny, tiny elderly Japanese woman was standing next to me, quite close, also reading the timetable. This lady was like a living stereotype of the aged Japanese granny. Itsy-bitsy, dressed in immaculately clean and colorful but slightly eccentric Western clothing, with a face like a withered crabapple, wispy pale hair and twinkling clever eyes. This venerable lady noticed me glancing down at her, and gave me a grin that would have inspired any given tribe of mischievous Irish faerie folk to adopt her as queen on the spot.
"You're a gaijin (foreigner)," she informed me, confidently.
Puzzled, I confirmed that yes, I was.
"Goodness, you're very tall, aren't you?" she continued, looking me over with unrestrained interest. "Very tall. My, my."
I really wasn't sure what to do at this point--it was my first encounter with the force of nature that is an elderly and eccentric Japanese woman. I just kept nodding and confirming her statements, in a bewildered sort of way.
"And white! You're absolutely white!" she declared, grinning up at me unabashedly.
Before I could respond to that, this total stranger reached out, caught the hem of my light summer shirt, and hauled it up to expose most of my stomach, which she perused thoughtfully for a moment with all the casual interest of a housewife choosing oranges at the supermarket before grinning merrily again and letting it drop.
"Mm, yes. Very, very white. My goodness."
I was stunned. I managed to stutter out something along the lines of, "Now then--please don't do that sort of thing!" She laughed, still very cheerful and friendly, and trotted off towards the ticket stiles, giving me a wave as she went.
"Goodbye, gaijin!" she called over her shoulder, popped her ticket into the stile and was gone, leaving me standing somewhat frozen in shock and awe. No one around us seemed to have noticed the interaction or paid it any mind.
Once the shock wore off, I doubled over laughing. As absurd and rather ill-mannered as the whole situation was? That lady was really a kick. I shared the story with my friends when they arrived, and it became a very fond memory in spite of itself.
(The Kasumigaseki Station is under heavy construction at the moment, by which I mean the entire ticket area has been knocked out and passengers must now enter through an improvised entrance in the supermarket next door. I'm going to miss the old ticket area, as grungy as it was. However, delightfully, Japanese construction moves very fast, and the new station looks like it's going to be complete by the time school starts again in March. How's that for speedy work? XD)
-
Edit: Holy catfish on a cracker, it's pouring down snow outside! I looked out the window and there's like five inches of it! (I usually keep the curtains on my room drawn to keep the heat in, so I didn't notice because I've been puttering indoors all day. But I'm now being frivolous and leaving the drapes open a little so I can watch the giant flakes spiraling down. It may be the first time I've ever considered my view beautiful. XD)
I could go into my excuses...but they'll be much more fun to write out as entries. Suffice it to say, I traveled with my American family over Christmas break, then hung out in Tokyo for another week or so (give or take), and then moved into my new apartment in Motohasunuma and have been puttering around getting settled in. And that's my hiatus in a nutshell, folks, details to follow!
(In all honesty, I have a lot of free time now, being as there's no school until March and nobody in their right mind is going to hire me for five weeks. So I'm going to try to be a good girl and catch up on my backlog of experiences. Y'all don't mind if some of the stuff I write about is a few months old right? Right?)
Oh, and my anecdote for the day:
Back in September, Saitama Prefecture was still sweating feverishly beneath the weight of a dog-days summer that ended up lasting into October. As of this writing, Japanese winter (and its accomplice, Japanese lack of central heating) has taught me the fine arts of layering, proper scarf and glove use, and wearing really big fluffy sweaters and jackets all the time. At that time, however, my wardrobe was minimalist, meaning I wore as little as my sense of modesty could stand, and necessarily consisted of light'n'airy linen capris, sandals, delicate little shirts (many of them hand-me-downs from Mae no Steph), and hairstyles that kept my hair as far off my neck and face as possible. This fact will be fully relevant in a moment.
The Kasumigaseki train station is a popular meeting place for JSP students planning to go somewhere. As both the closest station to the college, and a stop on the dominant Tobu Tojo railway line (unfortunately having nothing technically to do with my LJ name), it's a convenient jumping-off point for nearly any adventure. When we JSPers have something planned, the default meetup spot that gets zinged around on our network of cell phones is almost always Kasumigaseki Station.
As it happened, one day I broke precedent by being the first student to arrive at the station. The ticket machines at the time were arrayed along the front wall, outdoors. After buying my ticket, I had very little to do but stand around; to pass the time, I looked over the timetable nailed to the wall, on which all train times were listed, and tried to read station names.
At some point, I became aware that a teeny, tiny elderly Japanese woman was standing next to me, quite close, also reading the timetable. This lady was like a living stereotype of the aged Japanese granny. Itsy-bitsy, dressed in immaculately clean and colorful but slightly eccentric Western clothing, with a face like a withered crabapple, wispy pale hair and twinkling clever eyes. This venerable lady noticed me glancing down at her, and gave me a grin that would have inspired any given tribe of mischievous Irish faerie folk to adopt her as queen on the spot.
"You're a gaijin (foreigner)," she informed me, confidently.
Puzzled, I confirmed that yes, I was.
"Goodness, you're very tall, aren't you?" she continued, looking me over with unrestrained interest. "Very tall. My, my."
I really wasn't sure what to do at this point--it was my first encounter with the force of nature that is an elderly and eccentric Japanese woman. I just kept nodding and confirming her statements, in a bewildered sort of way.
"And white! You're absolutely white!" she declared, grinning up at me unabashedly.
Before I could respond to that, this total stranger reached out, caught the hem of my light summer shirt, and hauled it up to expose most of my stomach, which she perused thoughtfully for a moment with all the casual interest of a housewife choosing oranges at the supermarket before grinning merrily again and letting it drop.
"Mm, yes. Very, very white. My goodness."
I was stunned. I managed to stutter out something along the lines of, "Now then--please don't do that sort of thing!" She laughed, still very cheerful and friendly, and trotted off towards the ticket stiles, giving me a wave as she went.
"Goodbye, gaijin!" she called over her shoulder, popped her ticket into the stile and was gone, leaving me standing somewhat frozen in shock and awe. No one around us seemed to have noticed the interaction or paid it any mind.
Once the shock wore off, I doubled over laughing. As absurd and rather ill-mannered as the whole situation was? That lady was really a kick. I shared the story with my friends when they arrived, and it became a very fond memory in spite of itself.
(The Kasumigaseki Station is under heavy construction at the moment, by which I mean the entire ticket area has been knocked out and passengers must now enter through an improvised entrance in the supermarket next door. I'm going to miss the old ticket area, as grungy as it was. However, delightfully, Japanese construction moves very fast, and the new station looks like it's going to be complete by the time school starts again in March. How's that for speedy work? XD)
-
Edit: Holy catfish on a cracker, it's pouring down snow outside! I looked out the window and there's like five inches of it! (I usually keep the curtains on my room drawn to keep the heat in, so I didn't notice because I've been puttering indoors all day. But I'm now being frivolous and leaving the drapes open a little so I can watch the giant flakes spiraling down. It may be the first time I've ever considered my view beautiful. XD)