Of Trains and (Un)Manliness

Another post. Who knew? Told you I would make it up to you all. Well, this post will discuss the rush hour trains and (un)manliness.

I got on the train at rush hour the other day, unintentionally hitting the "just-off-work-and-trying-to-get-back-home" crowd. So, I get on the train, and I'm with a friend, and we only have four stops. Four. That's it. First stop, we though, "Wow, it's a little crowded. Luckily, we only have four stops." Second stop came and a mass of people rushed in. The doors barely closed. Third stop came up. More people came in. We were against the doors. There was no way that we could move. Business man behind me is falling asleep standing up. Business man behind my friend is falling asleep too. Girls on the other side of us are pressed against the doors like sardines. Would have loved to see their faces from the outside pressed up against the glass. I'm sure it was comical. It took about 10 minutes for the doors to close. People were in the way, you know. But you can ALWAYS fit another person. We got off at the fourth stop and were like "Wow, we can breathe again." So, lesson learned. Don't ride the train at rush hour. Just wait till later. There will be another train in 10 minutes. You can wait.

And now, onto the main theme of this post. (Un)manliness. Don't get me wrong. Japanese guys are very kind, and they make wonderful friends. No problems there. But sometimes you just have to question the guy's gender sometimes. No joke. I saw a person the other day who had a nice shiny black purse. Man bags are currently in style. So are big purses for girls. Useless. They were wearing small boots. Both girls and guys wear small shiny boots. They're fashionable, and fashion is very very important. They were also dressed fashionably. Definitely not helpful. Everyone must be fashionable, or the world will end. Finally, they had on tight pants. And when I saw tight, I mean tight, my friends. And this is the ultimate bane of my existence. You see, Japanese men don't really care if they reproduce or not. So they wear these ridiculously tight pants, and it's a pain in the butt. Because that's normally your last resort. Ended up it was a girl. But it took 20 minutes to decide. Consider this the norm. And now, onto the main event.

I got an e-mail the other day from the office at Ritsumeikan saying something the lines of, "Honorable person, please understand honorably that the foreigner benches will be moved. We hope this does not inconvenience you." After wondering why on earth they decided I needed that e-mail, and whether I should be offended or not, I decided to move to head over to the foreigner benches to go get a nice show. The wrestling team comes up. No. I'm not joking. The wrestling comes up. All 20 or so of them and 12 of them move to one table. These are picnic tables, guys. They're like maybe 20-30 pounds. Nothing. I can move one. By myself. Without trying. But no, 12 guys for one table. And they heave up the table with a shout of "Let's do it!" and they carry it away, grunting the entire time. Honestly, if they weren't tripping over each other's feet, it probably would have been a bit easier. But really, 12 guys. 12! Why do you need 12 guys to move one stinking table? I decided it was an exceptional amount of teamwork. After moving all three tables around the corner of a building, they decided to start setting up their wrestling rink. A U-Haul drives up. It's full of the most random crap I've ever seen in my life. Random metal pillars, 60 or so planks of wood, and other odds and ends. They carry out all the metal pillars. No problems there. Then, they move to the wood. This is when it gets even more ridiculous. Each plank of wood must be carried separately because we cannot damage it. Best of all. Each gets two guys, one on each end to cradle it carefully. Every now and then, you get up to three pieces, but normally, it's one to two. They actually look like they're having trouble moving these, and they're all dog-tired by the end because they've made about 50 trips to the stinking U-Haul. Now, I try not to make US-Japan comparisons, but I really can't help it here. In America, those 60 planks of wood would have been carried in maybe 10 trips. Maybe. That's the max there. It's likely be more like 5. Because here's the thing, US guys would have been like? "60 planks of wood? What the hell? That's too much!" And then they would have tried to be as lazy as humanly possible by getting it down as quickly as possible. So, they would have taken six or so at a time. Since girls were watching, that means they would have been placing bets, and rooting each other on to take more--all while shirtless. But this is not America. Every piece of wood gets tender loving care.

Ah well, till next time.

Michelle