Helmets and Wigs

AM

At 9:50am, I cut and toasted two of the six bagels I bought yesterday from Bagel & Bagel at Namba Parks. Undoubtedly, this was the highlight of the morning, although the two deliveries for Rosie from Amazon did add some interest to an otherwise standard morning. Crucially, though, it wasn't rainy, allowing me to complete the drudgery of visiting the dry-cleaners to pick up a pair of pants that were well overdue for a wash. On the way home, I was struck by the number of babies on bikes that were helmetless - crazy!




PM

By 2:50pm, I was on my way out to work at Yao which sits  at the base of the Ikoma mountains and no doubt quake prone. The stinking heat of the tram barely distracted my from the woman in designer clothes, snorting up her snot like a five-year old. At least she wasn't coughing uncovered like everyone else. It's only a matter of time before the swine flu strikes now - hopefully before the Christmas break. The comical highlight of the Yao voyage was clearly the old man wearing a jet-black Elvis toupe. It is impossible to imagine that he though no-one would notice - maybe he just likes the look. I wish I was rude enough to have taken a photo but the file photo right appears to show the identical model.

1,034,515

AM

Least: At about 10:50am I skulked down to the road to find that our bag of 'plastics' was still sitting there. I knew it had a yellow sticker on it, and I knew that I didn't know exactly what it said, but I had hoped that someone would decide that the offending bag was their problem and taken it away. Deep down, I think it was a laundry-related item that prevented the bag's departure, and deeper down I know I dragged the bag back upstairs.

Most: At about 11:15am during my excursion to the Family Mart and the Drug 11 I saw a youngish helmetless mother riding her bike with one helmetless kid in the back and a helmetlessbaby slung upon her chest. Her brakes screeched as as stopped. The vast majority of people never wear helmets while cycling in Japan. I've always wondered what the road toll stats are - they couldn't be pretty. And they aren't - 1,034,515 accidents and 5,743 deaths in 2007 (the lowest in 50 odd years) I carried my bag of plastics back upstairs.

PM

Least: Just after 4:00pm, I was teaching a class of 3-4year olds and one mother couldn't think of a more interesting way to redirect her child than to give him a smack. None of the other mothers blinked.

Most: Some time after 1:25pm, I became embroiled in one of Rosie's online arguments about the thoughts of Karl Marx. Some academic was boringly complaining that 'the people' have been too silent against the horrors of late-capitalism. I suggested that it was because most workers might be too comfortable to overthrow the capitalist system and the their (our) comfort was possible because of low wages in the developing world. Rosie threw that into the pot. I'm still unsure as to whether or not is was an interesting idea.