Singing in the Rain and Random Acts of Kindness
All good things come to an end and this week it was the beautiful weather. After seemingly endless days of sunshine, yesterday the sky started falling down. Unfortunately, it started while I was at work so I had to ride my bike home. Bugger.
Unlike J, I didn't have an umbrella in my handbag, nor would I have been game to make use of it whilst riding my bike home from work if I did. I still have a long way to go till I really turn Japanese as you can see. In fact, instead of hoofing it home I decided to carry on with my afternoon as planned and rode to the supermarket in Hiroo instead.
One wet bum and a few terrified Japanese chicks later, I arrived at National Azabu to do my shopping. I love grocery shopping here. The fruit looks like it's on drugs (it probably is) and you can spend hours trying to guess what the brownish jelly-like stuff is in that fridge over there. Or how many different types of whitebait they have here. And at National Azabu you also get to linger over all the International (i.e. Normal) stuff too, like golden syrup, tim tams, kiwi cheese, aussie mince (I never thought I would actually WANT to buy mince!) and ... this is the best part ... they even have Tip Top Hokey Pokey Ice Cream.
Actually the real best part is that they will deliver it all to your house for you that afternoon so you don't have to push it all home in the granny basket on the front of your bike.
So after the dizzying experience at National, I hopped back on my bike to negotiate the footpaths with all the Mum's picking up their darlings from the surrounding International kindies and schools. This is where riding in the rain gets truly dangerous. Forget worrying about riding on the road with a zillion cars going 100 miles an hour, it's the posh mums and their kids all wandering across the footpath hidden under their umbrellas without a care in the world that are the real danger!
And then the incident that made my day. I pulled up to Roppongi Crossing, feeling a bit guilty as a middle aged salary man glanced down at my front tyre (I thought I splashed the back of his navy pants - horror!). But then he inched closer to me and held his umbrella over my already soaked head while we waited for the lights to change. Unbelievable! It was so sweet! I tried to show him that it really didn't matter, I was soaked through anyway and barely able to push the pedals my pants were so heavy, but all he did was grin and say, "daijobu!" And then as the lights changed and I pedalled off, "Ja mata!!!"
I love Japan.
Unlike J, I didn't have an umbrella in my handbag, nor would I have been game to make use of it whilst riding my bike home from work if I did. I still have a long way to go till I really turn Japanese as you can see. In fact, instead of hoofing it home I decided to carry on with my afternoon as planned and rode to the supermarket in Hiroo instead.
One wet bum and a few terrified Japanese chicks later, I arrived at National Azabu to do my shopping. I love grocery shopping here. The fruit looks like it's on drugs (it probably is) and you can spend hours trying to guess what the brownish jelly-like stuff is in that fridge over there. Or how many different types of whitebait they have here. And at National Azabu you also get to linger over all the International (i.e. Normal) stuff too, like golden syrup, tim tams, kiwi cheese, aussie mince (I never thought I would actually WANT to buy mince!) and ... this is the best part ... they even have Tip Top Hokey Pokey Ice Cream.
Actually the real best part is that they will deliver it all to your house for you that afternoon so you don't have to push it all home in the granny basket on the front of your bike.
So after the dizzying experience at National, I hopped back on my bike to negotiate the footpaths with all the Mum's picking up their darlings from the surrounding International kindies and schools. This is where riding in the rain gets truly dangerous. Forget worrying about riding on the road with a zillion cars going 100 miles an hour, it's the posh mums and their kids all wandering across the footpath hidden under their umbrellas without a care in the world that are the real danger!
And then the incident that made my day. I pulled up to Roppongi Crossing, feeling a bit guilty as a middle aged salary man glanced down at my front tyre (I thought I splashed the back of his navy pants - horror!). But then he inched closer to me and held his umbrella over my already soaked head while we waited for the lights to change. Unbelievable! It was so sweet! I tried to show him that it really didn't matter, I was soaked through anyway and barely able to push the pedals my pants were so heavy, but all he did was grin and say, "daijobu!" And then as the lights changed and I pedalled off, "Ja mata!!!"
I love Japan.
posted by Sarah and Mike at 5:35 pm
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