Ouch!

Well...just sprained my ankle AGAIN playing basketball.  Can hardly put any weight on it. I even went to a sports shop a couple days ago to buy an ankle brace to avoid a situation like this. Of course, I sprain the other one.  Figures.  Anyways, the courts were a 30 minute walk from the dorm so my friend Tak (Takuya) and I were gonna have to take a cab back.  Koganei Park is HUGE so we had to ask directions in order to find out where the best place to catch a cab was.  Tak asked this middle aged Japanese woman, walking her dogs, where we could do this.  Instead of just giving us directions as I feel many in the states would do, she offered to give us a ride back to our dorm...before she even knew I had sprained my ankle! Now that is some of the Japanese kindness I had heard about!

So we walked to her car (well, I hopped on one foot) and we were on our way.  As I was sitting in the back of her typical Japanese teeny, but nice, sedan with her two golden retrievers, I was listening to her and Tak converse.  All I could think about was how respectful of a language/culture Japan has! It really is a cool thing to witness: two strangers speaking with the utmost respect and courtesy for each other, in a foreign tongue.  Also, I noticed that I was able to pick up a lot of what they were talking about.  Compared to a week ago, I feel like my Japanese has improved a lot!  Its nice to see the benefits of my persistence in trying to learn this language.   On a side note, I feel bad for Tak because Ryocho (an honorific name for our dorm manager) is making me stay in my room, and making him bring me dinner.  Oops. Thanks Tak!


These next few days, while my ankle is healing, are going to be interesting.  Tokyo is a city that requires A LOT of walking, and with school set to start on Thursday i'm hoping I will be able to move around decently.  This is where the need for Japan to conserve energy is gonna hurt.  The escalators at the train stations aren't running for most of the day! Hmm...

Well one last thing I want to tell you guys about.  Since I've been here in Japan, every morning I hear what I think is an ice cream truck.  My thought was that it was an international business.  I guess not, because I looked outside my window this morning and it turns out it is the garbage truck that is BLASTING ice cream truck melodies.  Quite interesting, thought I should mention it. 

Thanks for reading, later!