A few days ago, I was walking home from school, as were a bunch of the kids, who had been there late doing club activities, which I got to partake in, much to my delight. Now, most of the snow has melted here by this point, but there are still some sizable piles of it where the snowplows pushed it after clearing streets and parking lots. One of these piles is still large enough that kids will climb up it and play.
Well, as I was walking home, some of the kids were on this pile, and then there came a great commotion. Apparently, there was some problem and the kids were asking me to help, so I came to see what the matter was, despite the fact that I was not wearing my boots at the time, so climbing around in the snow didn't really appeal to me. Anyway, one of the kids had managed to get his boot stuck in the snow, and nobody could pull it out, so he was just laying on this mound of snow in one boot while all the kids were standing around him. I climbed up to see if I could get this rather Arthurian boot, but due to the kids all standing around, I could only reach it by bending over a pile of snow, and only then partially gripping it.
It was really stuck in there, so I couldn't get it out. It did, of course, occur to me to simply dig it out, but, as I said, there were kids all around, so I couldn't get to a position where that would be possible. So, another kids starts digging the boot out, and eventually succeeds in freeing it from its icy prison. In the meantime, apparently some kids had gone back to the school to get some real teachers to help or something, so a hole squad of them came bearing shovels. I'm not sure why anyone thought a stuck boot was a state of emergency, but you can't really fault them for responding too much.
After some more digging around in the snow, the point of which was lost on me, most of the teachers went back and the kids returned home. When some of the teachers thanked me for helping, I told them I hadn't really done anything, and pointed out the kids who actually did do the digging. Still, they seemed convinced that me being there was important, when really I was just interested in seeing what was going to happen, and the kid who had lost his boot was even made to thank me and the other kid and apologize. Again, I'm not sure why getting one's boot stuck in snow is really something one needs to apologize for, but I suppose that is what we call a cultural difference.
So, that was all behind me, but then a couple nights ago, the kid who lost his boot and his mother came to my door apologizing and thanking me profusely, even giving me a box of candy for my "trouble." I again tried to explain that it was no big deal and that I hadn't done anything in the first place, but I've found that trying to be modest, even if it is entirely truthful, is almost entirely pointless here. Ah, Japan.
So, basically, everyone here is great. Here's the candy, if you are interested. It is very good.
And here is some new "Beer Fine," which is not bad. It is low-carb, which seems to be a new trend here, as all the major brands just came out with low-carb versions. So, yeah, low-carb, but not terrible despite that. The snack is soybean-flavored (?) puffs of something (corn?) shaped like soybeans that were absolutely awesome.
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