Day 155 - Thursday, August 21, 2008

Day 155

This morning I woke up on the floor in a hotel room with 3 new JET friends :), one of them from Jamaica.... They had some training session thing in the morning so I left out early, told them bye and headed for Mcdonalds. I bought a couple chicken Mcnuggets then headed for the train station to my area Niimi. I saw a couple of the new JETS that I met. The darn Japanese people in the restaurant just would not stop staring, smiling and whispering while we were there talking. It is extremely annoying if you decide to pay them any mind... Maybe it's unusual for them to see a black man talking to so many white people, I dont know .... 

Anyway, I bought my train ticket and saw a train that I thought was the one going to my area. So because I wasn't sure, I asked a Japanese lady on the train if it was going to Niimi. She had this fearful look in her eyes and she nodded yes. I again asked "Niimi??" And again that fearful look and she nodded yes.. So I sat down. I eventually started to notice some signs in the train saying Mihara, which is in Hiroshima. Luckily I also heard the train announcement thing saying Kurashki, which is on the way to my area... The lady then seem to sum up some courage and came over to me and said "Japanese Japanese ... Kurashki" ... Which I interpreted as saying "You can come off at Kurashki to go to Niimi" ... to which I nodded then told her thank you...

I made certain to run off the train quickly, then jumped on the train that I was supposed to get on in the first place, which was about 2-3 minutes behind the one I mistakenly took. I eventually fell asleep on the train then got off at Niimi. I saw this guy from the USA on the train, struggling with 2 big bags, so I offered to help him out. He also had a little fearful look in his eyes. What is it? Do I look scary or something? Am I intimidating?? Somebody tell me please!!! Anyway, I then drove home to my apartment and stayed in for the remaining portion of the day.