Attack of the orificeman

On the subway the other day, on me way to a client, just sitting engrossed in my book ("A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry, which is brilliant, btw), when we stopped at Ebisu station. This slightly scruffy looking man comes bounding onto the train, sports bag slung over his shoulder, and almost runs to sit next to me. Quickly gets up again, shunts his back up onto the rack above and then sits back down, in a kinda sprawling manner, legs apart, feet pointed outwards. He then proceeded to use his right index finger to literally drill into every nook and cranny on his body, starting with some deep digging of his nostrils. I thought at first he'd just spend a couple of seconds at it, but he continued for two stops! First the nose, where he'd excavate some sludge and bring it forth into daylight, give it a good examination before plunging back in, wiping any treasures off on his trousers. Next ears, which must have burst an eardrum, seeing how deep he was going. Then onto the gaps between his toes. Yup, shoes came off, and socks, and it was time for the rummage between toes game. This time, he was actually smelling his finger each time, which almost made me puke. Finally, he finished with some scratching under his armpits and then some manic rustling of his hair, before settling down into a deep sleep.
Throughout this little adventure over the contours of his body, nobody else would look at him. It left me slightly flabbergasted and feeling ill, as I hurried off the train.

Photos from recent thangs

Scorching sunburns and an aborted ekiden

Made my way down to Arakawa river near Akabane yesterday, for my first ekiden (running relay), with Joseph, Nami and Phil. We hadn't done any training together but were feeling quietly confident we'd put in a decent performance.
It was bloody hot - somewhere in the low 30s, and being beside the river meant there was very little cover. Still, there were at least a thousand people gathered for the event, and we wandered around the grounds enjoying the various costumes that people had come out in. We had decided on doing the race in drag, sans the make-up, so I donned one of Miyu's purple wigs, and Nami had brought along a spare skirt. Must say we looked good, damn good, and there were plenty of appreciative stares as we mingled with the crowds.
The order of running was 10km (Phil), 5km (Tom), 3km (Nami) and 5km (Joseph). Phil got off to a good start, and we expected him to reach the hand-over point at around 50 mins, giving us enough time to have a further wander around, where we came across a small taiko group (Japanese drummers), banging out some thumping tunes.
I then went over to the handover point, jostling with the other runners, looking out for our teamates to come running past with the relay band. And I waited...and waited...and waited...by the time 90 minutes had passed we knew something serious was up with Phil, but Joseph and Nami couldn't find him in any emergency tent or when they ran along the track. After 2 hours we finally gave up and went over to the emergency tent again, to find Phil lying on the floor, covered in wet towel and very confused. He had no recollection of how he got there, and the last thing he could remember was going through the half-way mark but then getting very tired and hot. Then nothing. Everything went dark, and he woke briefly vomitting, and being surrounded by medical staff, who were throwing cold water over him and spraying him with some cool sprays. He blacked out again and then found himself in the tent, wondering where we were.
Although we didn't really get any sort of explanation from the medical staff, who were pretty busy treating about another 20 or so fallen runners, they tried to make Phil as comfortable as possible. We stayed with him for the next hour, chatting and making sure he got re-hydrated, then when he was feeling a bit better, made our slow way back to the station and home.
Disappointed that we couldn't run, but very glad Phil has now made a full recovery, and is looking forward to trying again next year!
Due to all the waiting around, I got pretty badly burnt, which left me feeling very tired and I ended up just crashing out after getting home. Quite a day.