Fushigi da ne?
In light of yesterday's extreme depression, today was a much better. Ah, the joys of womanhood. Even if I do have an overall negative mindset still at this point, I am at least developing a leaning toward the Japanese (Tokyo-ite) way of thinking: shouganai. They seem to love to say this. "Well, it can't be helped," or "well, that's just the way it is." That, "mendou kusai" (what a bother), and "sore, taihen desu ne" (Oh, that's a awful) seem to be favorites around here. Guess I'm not the only one. Except I don't have the money or the energy to drink away my weekend. What an alcoholic culture! *laughs* At least I'm staying away from the sucking void of LIQUOR... for the most part.

Anyhow, what I really want to mention are two rather mysterious occurences that have been on my mind. The first I saw yesterday walking from Waseda to Takadanobaba. A boy, college-aged, was walking down the street at quite the pace. Outwardly he appeard to be quite normal, dressed nondescriptly and carrying a bag. I only chanced to look at him because he hurried by quite urgently. But I noticed as he passed something really very strange... his shoes were utterly and completely destroyed. He was literally walking on the tattered remains of soles and canvas cloth, the carapace of the sneaker hanging limply off each foot. I could also see his right sock had quite a large hole thoroughly worn through the heel. It looked as though something had exploded out of his feet and decimated his footwear.

Looking at his shoes, you would have thought him poor... but the rest of him was quite normal. It made me wonder if his shoes were the reason he hurried so ... and what in God's name had happened to make them that way?

The second mystery is ongoing: in front of my house, two doors down from the vacant lot of the (ex)Ramen-ya is what appears to be an abandoned house. It was probably a shop in the past and its architecture suggests that it's been there a long time. The windows are dark, some are boarded over and the whole thing is falling apart. It sits close to the street, as do many of their neighborhood buildings, and therefore will have to be torn down and rebuilt in the construction. When I asked my mom about this dark house, she told me that, in fact, someone lives there and everyone wonders about him. As far as she's seen too, the windows are always dark and the house appears quite vacant... but sometimes a man can be seen entering and leaving and when he does, he always locks the door behind him.

*cue twilight zone music*

This has been your evening edition of Wacky Japan and two more reasons as to why I can't quite wrap my brains around this place. Ah well, shouganai.