Death

My beloved friend and former tutor saw a man jump in front of the express train today. As you can imagine, she's not taking it very well. For those that pray, please pray that she feels better soon. She can't stop thinking about it and it's really bothering her a lot. And for everyone else that watched it happen too.

I wish I could do more for her. How do you deal with watching someone commit suicide? I can't even begin to think of how I would cope. I told her I hoped she would feel better soon. I said I was sorry that she had to see that. I want to give her a hug. Thinking about how upset she is makes me upset, even more so because I can't take her memory away.

The idea of being in her shoes terrifies me. I pretty much only have one month left. I'm still holding on to the hope I won't have to witness this myself. I love you Japan, but this is too scary for me to handle.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished...Just Kidding!

Another little fun anecdote from riding the train.

At some point while coming home with Elizabeth and our friend Devin, I noticed a young girl in a high school (I'd like to assume) uniform looking quite concerned. I heard her say, "Gomen nasai! Sumimasen! (I'm sorry! Excuse me!)" and I thought she was trying to walk past me in the semi-crowded train. But that wasn't what she was trying to do. The second time around, she said, "I'm sorry!" and started touching my back. I twisted my head around to notice she was removing a moth that had hitched a ride on me. Needless to say, I was very surprised and immediately said, "Arigatou gozaimasu! (Thank you very much!)" She then made a mad dash through a pretty thick crowd of people, to the train doors and released it. It was quite fortunate that we were at a stop at that time. When she returned, the ladies sitting in the seats in front of us thanked her with big smiles. I also thanked her again.

It was very sweet of her. It was quite funny too. She got to use her English today ;)

Something interesting always happens on the train. From seeing people in distracting and questionable fashion (daily...it's the best), seeing people pass out and watch how the person next to them deals with the fact that a stranger is using him/her as a pillow.

Anyway, some other nice things that happen when riding the train:

People will sometimes move seats for you to sit down. For example, say I was with a friend on the train and there were two seats available. However, there is a person sitting in between the two seats. While one of us sits, the person will notice the situation and slide over to the next seat, so we could sit together. One time a man moved across the aisle so that I could take his place sit next to my friend. People will get up for elderly people and mothers with young children. It always makes me smile when it happens.

I hope you enjoy my train adventures as much as I do. Or maybe at least a little bit.

There's Always a Dark Side to Good Things

The trains in Japan are almost never late. In fact, they come into the station to the minute that the digital sign indicates. So, it's always really strange when it comes even a minute late. It was late today by at least 10 minutes - which in Washington D.C. is not so surprising but here it is.

Unfortunately, an infamous reason for delayed trains are people who jump in front of them to commit suicide. One of my friends speculated it and although I have heard of it several times, it left me feeling a bit sick and really upset. I eventually asked my friend if we could stop talking about it. I had to keep myself from crying. Some people may think it a little excessive to have such a reaction, especially since I had no idea whether that actually happened or not. But that doesn't matter - the idea of it is incredibly disturbing and it's depressing that suicide is such a "popular" thing in Japan. I don't know the statistics but they are high in this country. I'm just praying I won't ever have to see it happen.

*Sigh*

Besides that, I've been doing fine. I'm registered for all of my classes for this semester. I've tried going to some more classes that are taught in all Japanese but it just doesn't work. I apologize to the teacher and explain as much as I'd like to take the class, it's much too hard to understand. They're sympathetic and say it's alright.

On Saturday, I'm venturing to Roppongi for a hair appointment. It should be interesting I believe. It may not seem like such a big deal, but as a black person with different needs for my hair, it is sort of is one. I fail at explaining it to people, so sorry if my reasoning didn't sound so fantastic. I don't mean to sound vain or uptight, but I can't just go anywhere to have my hair taken care of - bad things happen.

And with that, it's time to eat dinner, watch Heroes....and then do homework. ^^