stuff

Next I would like to discuss something that is very strange to me, but it is something I have honestly never thought about before. I met someone, who is handicapped, and doesn't speak English. You might be wondering to yourself why I find it so strange, but for some reason it was honestly something I never thought about before. I'm not sure if I thought handicapped kids don't exist in other parts of the world or something of the sort, but honestly I have never been in the situation I was placed in this past Monday in class.

So the class was one for the HUSTEP students, aka the class is all in English, however higher level English speaking Japanese students are allowed to attend these classes as well to meet us tall foreigners to practice their English. So I sat down and one of my friends (he is Japanese) is sitting across the aisle from me, and next to him, sitting down is a Japanese girl. We begin talking a little bit because we are in the same group and we have a project due yadda yadda yadda and he introduces me to his friend.

So her name was Fumi, and something about her seemed slightly odd. Now I know that I previously said handicapped, but I think she had a slight case of Autism. In Japanese culture, asking someone else for something is considered, like, well it's just something you try to NOT do I suppose you could say. I'm not saying that it's bad that you ask someone else for something, between friends and such obviously this happens all the time. But I introduced myself, and she introduced herself, and instantly she held out her small hand, and asked me "Can I have some candy?"

I honestly don't know why it struck me so much, but I was honestly speechless. I just sort of stared at her hand for several moments not really thinking about what just happened. Like I said I don't know why, it just surprised me so much and yeah I don't really know. My friend after a second whispers something to her and he grabs a piece of bread (Japanese bread is basically like candy bread) out of his bag and gives it to her and she seemed to be satisfied with that.

I actually ended up not even responding at all, and just sort of turned back towards the front of the class. I really have no idea why I was shocked so much. I still think about it from time to time, I really don't know why...

Last for today, is a short story about a boy being late. So a couple weekends ago, me and the soccer team went to Niseko, which is Japan's most famous ski resort. We were to meet at 7:30 in the morning, to catch the 7:45 bus, but alas, like most group trips, there's always that one late kid. Now it's been awhile since I've been on a group trip, but I was pretty shocked by what happened.

So 7:45 rolls around, and we hop on the bus at the train station, and so we are sitting on the bus, and a couple of the guys have been in contact with the late kid, and he is apparently on his way to the station via taxi. This is 7:45. 7:47 rolls around, and supposedly the kid has gotten out of the taxi and is making his way towards the bus. At 7:49, I see him round the corner, and like a little kid, my face lights up because I am super happy the kid made it. The bus driver was nice enough to wait 4 minutes, and I turned to the kid next to me to express my happiness about the late guy still making the trip.

Much to my surprise, the guy next to me, along with the rest of the soccer team, was completely silent, sitting there looking rather solemn. I was pretty shocked by this. I stopped and tried to think for a second about what would happen in the states if this had happened, and well I am pretty sure everyone would be pretty happy the guy had made it, even though we DID make the bus way (4 minutes) they would still be happy he made it.

This was not the case with the Japanese guys. When the guy finally put his stuff down, he came back to where most of the soccer team was sitting and started to apologize, but no one really said anything to him. And I don't mean any kind of apology either. In Japanese there are levels of ways to say sorry, from friends using slang that would translate as "my bad" to saying sorry to your boss which would literally translate as "I humbly have no reason for my terrible actions." Lets just say he was using something that was closer to the latter. None of the other Japanese guys did anything though. He apologized several times, to everyone, and we all just sat there, completely silent.

After about an hour or so I asked the kid next to my why and he said it was because we had made the bus wait for us. I appreciate the Japanese system of transportation and how prompt and on time it is, but damn, this was pretty ridiculous. Before the late kid had arrived a lot of the guys had been saying "残念ですね” which translates as 'that's too bad,' so I hope they were using it in, a regretful manner, rather than the more literal meaning of the translation, but honestly after seeing how the situation unfolded I can't be sure which one they meant.