Tuesday 2 March 2010

Old man in park

While out for a walk, I sat in a park for a bit of a rest and to read a book. Before long an old man had come up to me, asked if I was American, and then invited me to chat. I said okay and so we wnt back to his bench where he'd been drinking whiskey and iced tea. We then spoke (mostly in Japanese, mostly him) about his daughter (half-Phillipino, sixteen years old, which means he must've been about fifty or sixty when she was born, so well done to him) and how the Japanese are happy people, and his job as some kind of agent who works to solve disputes between companies. At one point he started whispering and I get the impression he was telling me a terrible secret. I didn't undserstand a word of it, apart from someone going to prison for ten years. Possibly him.

He then pointed to his bicycle and explained he didn't live in Osaka, but only came in to by instant noodles. I have a hard time imagining any town in Japan that doesn't sell noodles locally, but I didn't ask for details.



At one point, he said he was just going to the toilet, so I said okay. Although the were some public lavatories in the park not far from us, he just walked a little distance away and started pissing against some bushes! I wasn't sure where to look (although "not at him" was the obvious first choice) and tried to pretend that nothing weird was happening.

1 comment:

sam morrison said...

Sounds like the job is taking it out of him...