The avoidance of eyes
It's Golden Week here in Japan at the moment, so Miyu and I decided to head on down to Enoshima yesterday for a bit of sand, sea and sunshine. This involved taking the Shonan Shinjuku train line all the way to Ofuna, and then changing to the monorail for a short ride to Enoshima. What really shocked and disappointed me was the fact that nobody on those very crowded trains offered to give up their seat for a very obviously pregnant Miyu. In fact, the people in close vicinity to her, who were sat down, either pretended to sleep, looked away or knotted their brows in concentration reading their books. This was exhibited even by people who were seated in the priority seats for people who need to sit down (handicapped, old and pregnant women), but who were obviously very able bodied. Had us both seething I tell you.
When we did arrive at Enoshima, it seemed like we were in fact in Shinjuku station at rush hour. The sheer volume of people there was quite shocking. Queues everywhere, and it made stopping on the streets almost impossible due to the steady flow of people traffic carrying you along.
Funny thing was, and something that added even more to the notion we were in fact in Shinjuku station, was the escalators taking you to the top of the hill. The island has a large number of temples, and it's quite steep, so somebody must have thought it'd be nice to install these escalators right in the middle of such tranquil antiquity. Miyu was glad of the assist though!
We had planned to cross the island and then take a ferry back to the main port. However, after trekking up and down lots of steep steps (and escalators), we found the ferry wasn't in operation! So, Miyu decided she didn't want to face the crowds again, so we took the short-cut along the cliff faces. This involved some not so easy rock climbing, which Miyu took in her stride very well, considering she's seven months pregnant. The only mishap was we both got our feet slightly wet in the sea at a particularly difficult stretch of the cliff face.
When we did arrive at Enoshima, it seemed like we were in fact in Shinjuku station at rush hour. The sheer volume of people there was quite shocking. Queues everywhere, and it made stopping on the streets almost impossible due to the steady flow of people traffic carrying you along.
Funny thing was, and something that added even more to the notion we were in fact in Shinjuku station, was the escalators taking you to the top of the hill. The island has a large number of temples, and it's quite steep, so somebody must have thought it'd be nice to install these escalators right in the middle of such tranquil antiquity. Miyu was glad of the assist though!
We had planned to cross the island and then take a ferry back to the main port. However, after trekking up and down lots of steep steps (and escalators), we found the ferry wasn't in operation! So, Miyu decided she didn't want to face the crowds again, so we took the short-cut along the cliff faces. This involved some not so easy rock climbing, which Miyu took in her stride very well, considering she's seven months pregnant. The only mishap was we both got our feet slightly wet in the sea at a particularly difficult stretch of the cliff face.
posted by TOK at 12:14 pm
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