the guy kept verbalizing something about it being hot
A few weeks back I met an interesting character on my train ride home. I take the Keio line from Shinjuku to Chitose-Karasuyama. When I work late I end up taking a commuter train around 11 p.m. These trains can get really crowded, and though I’ve never been shoved onto one by a pusher (that is, a man in white gloves who crams people onto the train) it can still get pretty tight. On on of these late nights I was standing next to the door, leaning on the seat partition. The best standing spot on the train is against a flat plastic wall that bookends the long bench on either side of the car. You can slot yourself against this thing and lean your ass on it. It beats standing upright and hanging onto the overheard monkey straps.
I was standing here, minding my own business reading a book, maybe The Little Prince or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, with my headphones on trying to ignore the dismal situation around me. Soon before the doors closed and the train departed someone got on the train and sort of tripped on my shoe and stood next to me. He apologized in English and I mumbled –daijōbu, which means ‘that’s okay’ and went on reading and listening. The guy kept verbalizing something about it being hot on the train and I knew he was trying to spark up a conversation. Now, I like to have a nice chat with a stranger but it seems that most often in Japan the stranger wants to practice their English. Their ability tends to be shoddy and, being an English teacher after a days work of coaching people with bad English, the last thing I want is to do it some more on my way home.
But despite my attempts to avoid conversation he got me. I don’t know what he said exactly but I couldn’t resist and started talking to him about this and that. But I was pleasantly surprised because his English was quite good and we talked about his time as a student in Canada and other such things. He just talked about himself and I could tell he wanted to practice, but it was alright with me because it helped pass the time and I didn’t have to teach him English. He never asked me what I did or anything and before I could get his name we rolled up to my stop, bid each other good night and off I went home.
That was something like two months ago, and the strange thing is I ran into him again tonight. He saw me on the stairs and asked –do you remember me? I said –of course, and we chatted on the commuter rapid all the way to my station. He told me about his ambition to learn more English slang. I gave him some advice: hang out in a group of English speakers and try to keep up. He was very happy when I complimented him on his English ability and we finally introduced ourselves. It was a weird coincidence and in a city of 30 million people kind of far-fetched, but on the other hand we daily take the same line home so it was a matter of time before we ran into each other again. In any case, I’m glad I didn’t ignore Yuki that first time because I ended up enjoying the spontaneous and brief conversation. I hope to run into him again some time.
The sun is up. Should probably get to sleep.
