Rain rain...

It seems to rain a lot here. If it weren't for all the Japanese people walking around I'd think I was in Seattle.

Yesterday I went to church in Ochanomizu again, and despite thinking about taking my umbrella because the sky looked a little gray, I walked out of the building into a downpour. Umbrella-less. So I buttoned my jacket up all the way, pulled the collar up and headed to Starbucks for an afternoon of reading and studying the Word. I walked by a shop selling pink and purple umbrellas for only 500 Yen, so I bought a pretty pink one and continued on my way.

Being a pretty obvious English speaker, I have a lot of fun conversations with people who are excited to test out their English on me. I went into Dr. Sound (a cool guitar store) to buy a capo--which cost a little over $25, which seems ridiculous to me, but I needed one and haven't seen any cheaper so far--and the clerk, who was probably in his 50's, donned a huge grin and started counting my change back to me in English. I smiled and told him his English was very good and he just lit up and thanked me profusely. Then on my way home from the train station, I stopped at a little take-out shop for some chicken, and while I was waiting for my dinner to be ready, a man came into the tiny shop to pick up his. He kept staring at me, and so I just kept looking at my new cool pink umbrella. Finally, after he must have worked up enough courage, he said "It's freezing out, isn't it?" And I must have looked pretty surprised because I'm not used to anyone speaking English to me in our town. We talked briefly about the weather and how he thinks winter is coming back (winter for them is like 40 degrees F, I didn't tell him that 40 is quite warm considering our winter is normally -10). I imagine they are as excited when they can use English as I am when I get a chance to use the few Japanese words I know.


One final random encounter--two days ago I was walking to the train station to head into Matsudo to buy a capo. I had my iPod in and was listening to a little TJ McCloud when a car pulled up beside me and slowed way down. I was expecting it to turn at the intersection I was about to cross, so I stopped, and then heard the driver talking to me. I pulled out a headphone and looked at him blankly as he rattled off something in Japanese. I shrugged and said "Eego?" ("English?") He then said the name of the train station I was going to, and I thought maybe he was asking for directions, so I pointed him in the right direction, but then he said it again, and then I realized he was asking me if I was going there. To which I hesitantly replied yes (while this is a very safe country, I've already had some interesting encounters with Japanese men and was mildly aware that this situation could go very wrong very fast). He motioned to the passenger seat, and then pointed at me, and said "Minoridai Station?" I laughed awkwardly and politely refused to get into a strange man's car, and as he drove away, I turned the opposite direction to head to the other station near my apartment instead.

the end.