A Word in Your Eye

a.k.a. comparisons

Fumie and Shigeru said goodbye to the upstairs guy out in the street. The upstairs guy told them to take care. Fumie handed him a small package, and said, "It's onigiri (rice balls). You can eat them on the train." The upstairs guy pulled a lumpy envelope out of his pocket and said, "Here's the rent. It's really late." Shigeru said, "You don't have to do that. You'll need the money." The upstairs guy shook his head and pushed the envelope into Shigeru's hands. "No, take it. I owe you so much." Then he looked at them and said, "I think good fortune is going to come to you. I'm done with manga, but Shigeru is really an artist." He turned and set off. He had an old-fashioned army surplus backpack, with a little teapot tied underneath it. The teapot wiggled as he walked off.
( tempest in a teapot? )
She couldn't help comparing this house, with bright curtains, new furniture, and a family laughing together with her house, dark, drafty, and lonely.

<to be continued>

aka In the big city...

This episode picked up with the young punk running down the train compartment, pointing at "you!" Then pounding on Shigeru, pinching his cheek. And he wakes up and says, "Oh, it's you." Then the punk sits down in the seat across from Shigeru on the man's hat. He pulls it out, and takes his own hat off and tries on the other man's hat. Then Shigeru asks if he is going to Tokyo, and they discuss what they are doing on the train. Shigeru says he went to a wedding, and the punk asks whose? Shigeru says mine, and somewhat reluctantly introduces Fumie. The punk stands, sweeps the hat off, and claims to be an old friend of Shigeru's.
( Is this the kind of people who live in Tokyo? )
The car stops among some old houses. The one straight ahead, the fence is broken, the boards weathered.

Fumie looks at the house and says, "Here? No, it can't be true."

To be continued...