Friday, October 07, 2005

A grumpy old Ojiisama on the Tama

Was down on the Tama River this afternoon taking---or trying to---take some photos. As a was packing to leave, some old man (old is relative in Japan, people start acting elderly at 35-40) came up the path pushing his granny bike. He stopped and started staring at me.

Now this isn't so unusual, some Japanese, mostly the gummers over 50 still stare at foreigners. I know this is rude, and the Japanese are, of course the most polite people in the universe, but staring at foreigner doesn't count.

I often star back when this happens, but this old gummer looked like he might start gibbering to me. So I ignored him.

In a few seconds he started grunting. Again, not unusual as a lot of these old gummers grunt with even the slightest effort such as inhaling.

I took a few minutes getting my stuff packed and as soon as I moved a few inches right, old grampa grabbed his clunker flew up the path like a bat out of hell as fast as he could waddle. He was muttering and cussing to himself, and then it dawned on me. I was standing on the path he wanted to take. He didn't just say "excuse me" (sumimasen, shitsurei shimasu etc) he just stood there grunting like an old sow with a corn cob up her ass. I was supposed to have understood the meaning of his grunt.

Wow. I stood in the way of an old gummer like an idiot and ignored him. I am turning Japanese! Damn. Payback at last!!!

No comments:

Post a Comment