Talking to Yourself

Maybe it is just because I'm commuting into Chiba every day at the moment but suddenly there seem to be a lot of strange people around in Japan. Didn't I notice them before or is it something new in the air? Perhaps it is all to do with the need for a serious political shake-up here, Japan feels in as much need of a General Election here as we are back in the UK and the Americans are itching for a presidential contest too. Political hassle of all kinds seems to get people into an agitated frame of mind.

In the archive office over the last couple of weeks I've had at least five fellow readers holding debates with themselves over the documents they were reading. One guy got so excited that he got up, prowled around and stamped his foot. The archivist on the desk looked at him nervously and me meaningfully, I looked at her meaningfully back ... but luckily the debate got less agitated and he left soon after. The security guard there is pretty well a full-time zimmer frame driver, not much help in that direction if it really hit the fan

Then on the train I seem to have had more than my usual share of this too. Mind you this is the time of year when humidity rises sharply and we all breathe deeply when the air-con in the coach cuts in with a roar. But this afternoon the passenger in the seat opposite me seemed to be having a conversation with the bottom corner of the A4 envelope he was carrying and he even smiled at it twice. "For God's sake don't look! Eye contact here is just fatal ..." was in my mind. But I couldn't drag my eyeballs away. The envelope was from the Leopalace21 apartment agency, perhaps he'd just been given a job as janitor, stoking the boilers down below in the dark. Somebody's terrible future might just be arriving.

My grandad used to tell me that "talking to yourself is the first sign of madness". The FIRST sign? Well, I told myself that he might have been right but somehow I just couldn't agree with myself in the end and in fact we are still arguing about it after all these years ...