The ride to school yesterday was far more eventful than any occurrence at school, and it all began in a crosswalk.

Every morning there are lots of people, mainly high schoolers and some older people, who walk or bike to their schools/jobs. Yesterday, like most any other day, I was a member of this crowd. We stood in silence at an intersection, waiting for the pedestrian traffic light to turn green. They paid very little attention to me, only keeping intact the innate abilities to maneuver within the crowd without actually looking at anyone. I respond by returning the same lack of interest.

Now this only applies to those I’m walking with, for the people walking in the opposite direction, coming at me, get the full brunt of my passing judgments into their appearance and character. After all what else do I have to do while riding than attempt to give casual glances into passing souls? It was in this mindset in which, when the light turned green and I picked my foot up off the ground and started pedaling, I began judging all those who passed by me, heading towards the corner I had just come from.

Within the sea of homogeneous faces, one stood out, one grabbed my attention. It appeared to belong to a young and tenderly pretty face, the owner of which had her head bowed, watching the road as she walked over it. It wasn’t remarkably pretty, but it was one of such fine attraction that it was worth noting.

Surprised at my find, I continued my nonchalant cycling across the intersection. As I approached her, closer and closer, I noticed that she was walking slightly awkwardly, as if one of her legs was longer than the other. We closed the distance to each other, me on my bike and her shuffling forward with her convoluted gait. Now only a few feet away from each other, she tilted her head up, slightly, maybe an inch or two, but it was enough. I saw what I needed to see.

Teeth. Horrible teeth. Nasty teeth. If you ever come to Japan you realize that orthodontics and dental work have taken a backseat to, well, everything. Anyone who’s spent any time in Japan will surely come back with a mention of the teeth, and this girl was worse than most. Sometimes I’ll see a Japanese girl that would definitely qualify as a looker, that is until she opens her mouth and you see the horrors within. But it didn’t stop there.

I tore my gaze away from the mouth to see that my earlier judgment of her features must have been a trick of the eye, her head must have been tilted at just the right angle to display the good and hide the oh-so-bad. For when her head made that ever-so-slight tilt I realized that I had been gravely mistaken. She just looked, bad.

Now with all of this running through my head and dots connecting with dots, I pondered to myself how it was possible to mistake this whole picture of a girl with a slight limp, horrid teeth, and a much-less-than-appealing face for one of the city’s great beauties. I was baffled. Shortly thereafter, I shook it off and cycled away.

My vacation didn’t last long.

A good five minutes later, as I was continuing on my cycling journey along the largest road in the city to my school, I came a across a man, running. He didn’t look out of the ordinary really—a middle-aged salary-man man in a fluttering tan trench coat over his salary-man-issued black-on-white suit. The only difference was, this man was running along the sidewalk of a very busy street early in the morning.

Actually, he wasn’t running, he was sprinting. I quickly gained on him from behind, quickening my pedaling pace in an effort to catch up and surpass him. I wanted to overtake him, but he was obviously on a mission, deftly dodging around pedestrian high schoolers and moms with babies. My humble bike was unable to maneuver quite so skillfully around these mobile obstacles, and I was forced to squeak my brakes and slow down. There will be no hitting of pedestrians today.

To my dismay, the trench-coated salary-man nimbly escaped, darting around a building’s corner and disappearing. I had lost. In my defeat I resumed my regular cruising cadence and after not much time, I caught up to the corner around which my target had gone. Once I had finally approached the corner, I glanced to my right, peering beyond the corner that I had just passed, curiosity grasping me and hoping to see where running-trench-coated-salary-man had gone.

He was only a few feet away from me, apparently he hadn’t gone far around the corner at all. I quickly gathered why this man was in such a hurry—he had to pee, and peeing he was, a wonderful, strong stream gushing to the building’s side.

With my intense curiosity satiated, I gave a quick acknowledging nod, maneuvered around another group of oncoming high schoolers (who paid no heed to the man peeing on the building next to the sidewalk), and sped off to school, now that I was ready for another day.

Bright and early at 7:30 tomorrow morning, Saturday, I will be boarding a bus to Tokyo along with Chet, Mark, and Aya. There I will pick up Jason, Jake, and Chris (one of my brothers plus friends from the US) and will meet up with Beth. We’ll be staying a few days in Tokyo followed by a day in Nikko followed by whatever happens back here in Fukushima.

For everyone else, have a great winter vacation. I know I will.

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