Rare Occurrences

Well, because I've been getting questions about it, I just wanted to say that before I begin this post that nothing else has really happened between China and Japan. Three Fujita employees were released the other day. China had supposedly been detaining them due to them entering a restricted military zone. This was considered a positive step toward resuming relations between the two countries (Source: China Frees Three Fujita Employees). However, to be honest, nothing really has changed. Things are still tense, and we haven't been given anything else on the matter.

In other news, I experienced a couple really rare things recently. First, I found a water fountain. I know, what an odd thing about post about right? But I'm not even kidding you when I say these things are hard to find. In a month, this is the first one that I've seen so far. I was even like, "Woah! A water fountain!" And all of the Japanese students around me looked at me like I had three heads, but hey, sometimes you just can't contain your excitement.

The other unusual thing happened the other day when I decided to ride a bus with a friend to a temple in downtown Kyoto. We went a few stops down on the line and then an "argument" began to break out behind us. And by argument, I mean, people trying politely to convince a person to get off the bus when he really didn't want to. It was an elderly man, I suppose his wife, and a friend or something. They were telling him, "Let's get off now. This is our stop. The family is waiting," etc., but he refused to get off stating that it wasn't his stop. I'm assuming that he had some sort of mental disability, but it was very strange. The bus waited nearly 20 minutes for this individual to get off the bus. The bus driver then came and also tried to convince the man. The reasons why this is so unusual are listed below:

1. The elderly man created a scene. This is absolutely unacceptable in I believe a fair number of countries, but it is especially frowned upon here. By making a scene, you inconvenience the people around you. You are causing the public to become unsettled. Therefore, your goal is to make sure that society runs smoothly. You live your life, but you do not inconvenience other people.

2. The fact that this man caused a scene means that the individuals with him, especially his supposed wife will be embarrassed for an astronomically long time.

3. The bus waited 20 minutes for one individual. The busses, trains, etc. never wait for a group of people, let alone one person. Things run on time, getting off the schedule inconveniences the populace which is never done if it can be avoided. The only reason I think this was excused was because the individual was elderly.

Needless to say, the man decided he was not getting off the bus, so the bus continued on its way.

And that's it for this post. I need to get back to studying.

Michelle