Many months ago I posted on my blog about the next generation roller skates that I bought and started using for exercise. The weather the last few days has been amazing-great temperature, sunny, and a cool breeze-so I finally decided today that I had to take advantage of it. I found my skates, dusted them off, made sure they were still safe to use, and headed out the door. By luck (good luck if you like attention, bad luck if you don't like being a spectacle) the elementary school three blocks from our house had just released the students a few minutes earlier. I walked out the door of the apartment building, sat down on the front step, started to put on my first skate, and the mini-parade of children started to walk by. The looks and stares that I received ranged from "what's that guy doing?" to "I THINK AN ALIEN JUST ARRIVED FROM ANOTHER PLANET!" After four years, I'm pretty much used to sticking out as a non-Japanese living in Japan, so the stares usually don't affect me much one way or another anymore. But the innocent amazement in children's faces still makes me smile, even if it reminds me a little bit that I'm different here. And I have to admit, I'm VERY different zipping around the neighborhood on skates...
No comments:
Post a Comment