Thursday, February 04, 2010

The Horror

For some strange reason I was just now idly recalling a couple of horror-inducing situations that I found myself in during the first couple of weeks after I arrived in Japan...

On the second day after moving into my first apartment here in Miyazaki, it was a Saturday morning, my doorbell rang. "Who the hell could that be?" I remember thinking to myself. I went to the door and opened it. There was a small middle-aged Japanese man standing there. He seemed at first a bit surprised to see a foreigner standing in the doorway. But then, with a big, toothy smile, he spoke to me. In perfect English he said, "Hello, I'm a Japanese Jehovah's Witness." My head started to spin, and I swear I heard the shower scene music from Psycho...

About a week later I was in a bar with a couple of other Canadians. One was a fellow Nova Scotian, and the other was a Francophone Quebecker. We were having a good time drinking and talking about living in Japan and other stuff when the other two guys started talking about the issue of Quebec separation. Soon they were arguing. I started hearing the Psycho music again...

I haven't heard that music in my head for a long time now. Have I escaped?

2 comments:

  1. Sometimes it is better to be tone-deaf, Grasshopper.

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  2. But have you started listening to phones ringing lately? Horror is a never ending story, you know...

    ReplyDelete