Commuting has also been extra tiring - three mornings in a row I nabbed a coveted corner seat but the first two I was robbed of a nap when a salary man decided to nap standing up and shove his ass in my shoulder and his elbow in my ear through the bars on the end of the seat. Not quite the most comfortable of situations, to say the least! I tried elbowing him a few times but to no avail. The third morning I was hit in the head when a very polite but obnoxiously exhausted goth couldn't stay awake or stand upright and swung into me while holding onto the handle above me. He only grazed the top of my head but my annoyed ojisan growl scared him enough that he shoved through the mass of commuters to run to the other end of the train car!
By Thursday I was no longer tempted by the corner seat and ended up having a better nap - albeit punctuated by the guttural back of the throat honk-sniffle of the salaryman beside me. Allergy season brings out the most disgusting of noises despite (because of?) lingering cultural disapproval of blowing your nose in public - at least for some. The elderly man sitting beside me this morning demonstrated his modern sensibilities and the healthiness of his lungs by blowing his nose evenly and continuously for a good few minutes, pausing only to take a breath and blow again. Lovely.
Last night I ended up passing out on the couch while U was watching TV (something I very rarely do) and woke up in a start at 3 am to an apartment ablaze of lights and U sound asleep in our bed upstairs. He insists he woke me when he went to bed to tell me to follow him, but I have no recognition of anything of the sort!
Bring on the weekend!! (with a few glasses of ume-shu to welcome it in, I think!)
God, that kind of commute would really do me in It think. Kudos for you to getting through it at all. Hope you get to catch up on some rest and ume-shu over the weekend and that preparations for the upcoming event all go well :)
ReplyDeleteI was always so glad I never had to commute into work in Japan. The few times I did have to go on peak hour trains, usually to go to immigration, were just like you described.
ReplyDeleteHope you're now enjoying a lovely, relaxing weekend.
I hope you've had a relaxing weekend and that you now have lots of energy to make it through the coming week of noisy, inconsiderate and sleep standing co-commuters. The upside is that you are going to a job that you love and right now you are valued and doing something which you'll see great rewards for soon. There'd be nothing worse than a commute like that to a job you hate.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the words of sympathy. Normally it really isn't too bad - I just had a bunch of bad experiences all fall in one week. Venting here is a much better release than what I'd rather do at the time - which would result in nationwide headlines of "crazed foreigner goes on rampage on commuter train, no nose or groin or instep left untouched!!"
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, ume-shu and much relaxing were had this weekend! Bring on Monday! (and yes, Achan, it makes all the difference in the world that work is really good right now. All the difference! Of course it also helps that I love coming home at the end of the day, too!)