View Single Post
Old 01-28-2012, 11:05 AM   #7
Ellis Amdur
 
Ellis Amdur's Avatar
Location: Seattle
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 934
Offline
Train Story #3

I used to carry my training equipment in a furoshiki (a large handkerchief, really). Very old-school. I was coming home from the Aikikai one night, and I was tired. It hadn't been the best day. I'd had an unpleasant hour practicing with Miyamoto-san, and Yamaguchi-sensei had found fault with every thing I did. And I was tired.
I got on the Seibu Ikebukero line, and all the seats were full. But then, as I walked down the car, I saw this guy with a "punch pama" (his hair in tight little curls, the vogue among gangsters), with his legs widespread, taking up two seats.

So I put my furoshiki up on the rack above him and sat on his right leg.

At the last moment he yanked it back, and I sat down on the seat.

He stared at me and I ignored him. There was a very pretty girl sitting on his other side. I sank into my own thoughts. He started talking, and I glanced over and saw that he was leaning over the girl, talking to another chimpira (low-level gangster) on her other side. They were "ignoring" her, both leaning in, talking about what they liked to do to women and then, shifted to what they were going to do to me. "F..king gaijin. They may be big, but we got Japanese spirit. They are all flesh, whereas we are all heart. We can take him. We can take him. We CAN take him.!" I know it's just about to go down and I'm ready to tho' down. The train is shaking, the train is shaking, my hands are shaking, the train is shaking. The girl is shrinking into herself, trying to disappear. The train is shaking.

And somehow, the shaking of the train, loosens my furoshiki, and my black belt, which was actually grey (which means "he's been around awhile"), which I'd rolled up into a corner of the bundle, unfurled like a huge lizard's tongue and it was dangling right in front of the punk's eyes. He looked at the belt, he turned and looked at me. He looked as his friend. They looked at the belt. They looked at me. I smiled. They got up and ran off the train.

I used to fantasize about rescuing beautiful girls since I was five years old. And there she was.
I smiled at her.
She looked at me.

And ran off the train.

Last edited by Ellis Amdur : 01-28-2012 at 11:14 AM.

  Reply With Quote