I finished a long run yesterday at Takaosan-Guchi Station. I immediately bought a beer and sat in front of the station enjoying it. I noticed a guy staring at me. I wondered if he was upset that I was drinking in public. This would be odd, because, unlike in the United States, there generally isn't any opprobrium directed toward public drinkers.
He walked over to me, and I wondered if we were about to have some sort of confrontation.
He said to me, haltingly, "Where . . . buy . . . beer?"
I pointed him toward the store, and we agreed that beer was pretty great after a long day in the mountains. He had, it became clear, been mentally reviewing his grade school English and getting up the guts to use it.
--David
A great story (for the “All-Story” Blockhead of your previous post). It must have been an effort to muster the English (as it would have been for me to dredge up my grade-school French). And I definitely feel a society-wide peaceable public consumption of alcohol with decorum is something to be proud of.
Posted by: Julian | 07/05/2016 at 08:20 AM