An alien in Japan: One helluva day...

Geez...today I thought one's day couldn't get any worse than this (I mean a regular day without anybody dying). The weather forecast did say that a storm was coming, but what we actually got was beyond my imagination.

Around noon, heavy dark clouds started to flow in from the horizon. An hour later we had 50-70 km/h (sometimes probably even stronger) winds, horizontally falling rain, and a darkness that otherwise would indicate it's 7pm. I was hoping the rain would stop by the time I finish work, coz holding an umbrella seemed impossible.

I got lucky though. When I walked out of the school at 4 pm, we only had a light rain, and moderate winds. I walked to the station, only to realize that the trains were running a few minutes late. I took the train to my transit station where the trouble began. There were a couple of hundreds people waiting for the train, which was quite unusual, so I checked the digital timetable. The loop line had stopped, the trains were running again, but they were several minutes late. Pheeew...I thought I got lucky. I squeezed myself onto the next train. We were like sardines in a can. Just like rush hour...no big deal. 2 stations later it became hell. I was pushed so much I could hardly breath, it was just scary. At the next stop there were again hundreds of people trying to get on...so guess what? The train was stopped. Originally, because the train in front of us got too crowded and had to stop for safety reasons...well, our train had pretty much the same situation. When they announced that we are stopped and if we can we should go to the closest subway station, I immediately pushed my way out of the car, only to find myself surrounded by thousands of others occupying the whole platform. It took me about half an hour to get out of the station. I was lucky, coz I was just one stop away from my home station, but walking in the wind was quite a challenge.

When I got to the supermarket I usually go to to do some grocery shopping, I realized my backpack was wide open!!! For a second I was petrified. My wallet was in with all my cards, my passport too, Normally I don't have it on me, but last week I had to hand in my alien card to renew it, so I have to carry my passport around till I get the new card. I checked my backpack, and seemingly nothing is missing. I did feel that my bag was pushed and pulled a couple of times, but the crowd was so big I couldn't even get the bag to the front. I also assumed that people would be so kind as to tell me that my bag is open. I've had similar experiences: once a lady stopped me just to tell me that I should tie my shoelaces. No one said anything this time, all those people around me. I wonder if anyone has seen somebody pulling the zippers open. Bastards!

Anyway, I guess I was still lucky I could get home. Though it took me an hour more than usual, and being in the crowd was really exhausting, not to mention scary. I hate crowds. I made the utmost efforts not to get into a panic, coz that would spread faster than the flu. I hate taking the train every morning, I especially hate crowded trains. And by crowd, I mean a real crowd, not the bunch of people you'd meet at the Sunday market on a nice, thriving economy day. Man, was I happy to get the hell outta there.

Evidence:


The storm is coming...


The crowd behind me...So, which one of you opened my bag?!?!?! I wonder if my taking the picture was the actual reason why nothing got missing from my bag...hmmm.....