Today, I went to Kumazawa to buy a magazine, and I noticed 3 things. First, when I got off the train, I was approached by a charity worker, but I don’t know what the charity was. I don’t give to charity when people approach me asking for it, because they may not be legitimate. If I give charity, it would be directly to an organisation, not an individual on the street. However, I noticed that he was only approaching foreigners. I have some ideas about why they approach only foreigners. First, they think foreigners are tourists and carry a lot of money with them. Second, they think foreigners are more likely to give money because they’re more gullible. It may have been a real charity, and probably was, but who gives to charity every time they go to Sakuragicho station? Also, I have been approached to give money for earthquake victims, an earthquake that happened 3 years before.
2nd thing was that in Kumazawa, I noticed how few non-fiction books there are in the English section. The non-fiction section is also completely mixed, from science to financial books to politics. It’s very difficult to find what you want. I also saw Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species in the paperback novel section, as well as the non-fiction section. It should be in the non-fiction section. Also, there was no Shakespeare.
3rd was a strange thing. On the train back home, there was a man standing at one end of the car making the train announcements, including locations of elevators and escalators, which side of the train the door would open, and so on. But he was just a passenger, not a JR employee. Besides, there was an automated announcement for each station. Was he a train fanatic? Or did he have a mental illness?
Jay Dee in Japan 