Day 25

Today I went to buy a cup of coffee at the supermarket near our place. In front of me, a woman in her 70s was ordering and she asked her friend (another old lady) who was close to us to pay for the her own lunch at the register. The friend was going to pay after the woman, but then she saw me, who was slightly hidden from her view behind the pole, so she told me she didn’t see me because of the pole, and would pay at another cashier. I told her it’s okay and she could pay before me, but she didn’t and she went to another register. I can’t imagine the same thing happening in Osaka: Japanese people are nice, but I have experiences of old people cutting in line.

I was impressed by the old lady’s action, but then a waitress who let us wait at the busy restaurant tonight also apologized to us many times. So I started to realize that I was wearing a shirt with a strong print of big yellow bananas in a black background. Even though the shirt might have made people feel frightened of me so they didn’t want to take advantage of me, I’d like to think otherwise.