Detour or Doutor?

It's Thursday. I'm hanging on for Friday. It's Thursday and tonight I had a strange bit of the ol' American Gavin DeBecker-type gift of fear warning. It was triggered by a series of events. First, a Western man came and stood next to me on the Ginza Station platform where I catch the metro. He was dressed in business dress and carried a cell phone, which usually means that he's working in Tokyo. He was a middle-aged white guy, balding, the hair that was left a curly blondish-brown color. It's not so unusual to see other Westerners in Ginza. There are many tourists there at this time of year, but he clearly wasn't a tourist. He got on the train at Ginza. That part wasn't unusual. About a hundred or more of us opted for that train. He chose the car I chose. Again, not unusual. He rode the train to Asakusa. Asakusa is a major station, where many metro and JR lines meet, so his going there also wasn't unusual. The Ginza metro's last stop is in Asakusa, and again, the train emptied out. He walked out of the car and crossed the station. I headed up the stairs. I took the stairs up to the Tobu line platform and got on the train that goes to the tinier, less usual parts of Tokyo. I looked up to see him boarding the same train.

Okay.

You may say I'm just being paranoid, but, yes, I had this strange Phillip K. Dick-ensian moment when the whole world was out to get me.

I waited until one stop into the ride to Higashi-Mukojima, got up and walked back three cars. Just as the train was leaving Hikifune, I stepped off the car. I walked downstairs and out of the station. I waited.

Nothing.

You may be saying: Of course nothing.

Doutor

I had coffee in Le Doutor Cafe in Ginza this afternoon before starting work. While I drank my four hundred yen iced coffee, I noted in my diary that there has been an increase in the police presence in this town. Honto. Bigger stations like Tokyo and Shinjuku have a very definite police force in evidence, but Ginza Station? I have never seen a single police officer there until this week. Today alone, I saw four police officers. Four police officers in one place in Ginza is unheard of.

The students were also nervous today. Students who are usually outgoing sat and stared at their desks. I tried to get them to practice, to speak, but the most any one of them would do was smile shyly at my clowning. What was going on? The typhoon coming seemed to cause a kind of constant din of worry in students who should have been home, but who dutifully turned up for lessons.

I walked into the breakrooom tonight and there was an unfamiliar face there. I said, extending my hand, "I don't know you, do I?" He looked scared. He took my hand, but he actually looked a little worried about having to do so.

There's more, but I'll write later, ne?