Notes from the front
Written in my notebook at the scene:Kiomye and I are at Kid’s World in the Daiei department store. Kio is jumping around in the windy balloon tornado and I’m sitting on a safely padded bench taking in our surroundings. The overhead stereo is blasting the ABC song, but the song keeps the letters in order only until J, then it mixes it up at random: “s,o,u,x,y,z.” Kiomye has flopped her bear on a padded merri-go-round and is shouting “Faster! Faster!” She has already tired of the bouncing room and the giant rotating bear room.
Many of the mothers brought their cameras. Each has taken at least one picture of Kiomye. Her dark blonde hair and blue eyes sill get a lot of attention wherever we go.
The trains were packed full on our way here. Our first train pulled up with people already pressed against the doors. Crap. I had Kiomye in the stroller. There didn’t appear to be enough space for us. There were no affordable alternative means of transportation to our destination, so I said screw it, turned around and backed my way into the tight crowd. Not a soul would have offered to make room for my stroller; I’ve been riding the trains long enough to know that. So, I simply made room using my backpack as a barge and repeating “sumimasen” in my sweetest foreigner voice.
Turns out there was plenty of room after all.
posted by Scribbler @ Friday, October 15, 2004
1 Comments:
From my Tokyo trip, it looks like that's the way to do it, back into the train, or you'll be left waiting forever. I've even seen women dressly nicely in professional suits and all do the very same thing =)
Post a Comment
<< Home