Walking to Work

Today I took the train to work in the morning. I have not done this all winter because A. It's cold and B. we have a car (with about 5000 kilometer or 3107 miles in 1.75 years), might as well use it. As I was swiveling through the sea of bikes and people - teenagers walking to the all girls high school and the little kids walking to the elementary school - I stopped for a moment to think how this would all be impossible back home. I felt I should have protected the little kids until they got to school. I wanted to grab them all by the hand and deliver them safely to their classrooms. I think this would have gotten me into a heap of trouble because there is someone who already does that here. There are traffic controllers volunteers on every street corner until you reach the elementary school and they take care of the little five year olds who walk by their itty bitty self with a backpack bigger than them, see below:
I guess it really does take a village and Japan is very good example of that.
Once I finally got on the train everything was pretty normal, quiet as always. Once I got off the train something unexpected happened to me…culture shock. After being in Japan almost 2 years everything seems pretty normal now and I accept it as the way things are and I don't think about it twice. This morning was different. As the train doors opened everyone got out and the mob of people started walking toward the office building. At one point the mob of people was so slow and so similar (EVERYONE in black coats) that I could not help but think "OMG I'm an extra in a zombie movie". Seriously it was like a scene from every zombie movie you have ever seen (my personal favorite is Shawn of the dead but your entitled to your opinion). People were just stomping forward without saying one word to each other or more amazingly not even bumping into each other. It's a mob without chaos!!! Only in Japan my friends, where everyone is so polite that they won't cut in front of you in any line and they will quietly and orderly wait their turn even if it freezing cold!!! A few minutes later a car was trying to pass right threw the small alley way that the mob was walking through and guess what happened?

A. Everyone just stopped walking and formed a traffic jam
B. Everyone charged at the car and started pounding on the windows (once again I've watched too many movies)
C. Everyone just got out of it's way and waited for the car to pass

If you guessed C you are the winner!!! Sorry the only prize you get is knowing that you have read this blog so much that you are in touch with the "Japanese way". I'll report back if any of these days the zombies attach me while exiting the train…if I make it. Yes I have an active imagination, there worse things you know.