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I knew I had to write a blog entry when I was on my way back to my dorm room this evening. It ‘happened’ while I was in Kunitachi Station (the closest station to my university and about 20 minutes from where I live). In the train station, there was this woman who must have been in her early 80s, scraping the ground (with the home-slippers she was wearing) in a way similar to that of a bull ready to charge - only she had no horns and had a really crooked back. Either way, I knew I should get ‘out of her way’. Surely enough, she began to charge into the crowd (I’ve never seen an old woman run like that), but soon tired out without hurting anyone (or herself).

I ignored the mad scenario and got onto the train, reflecting on what my day has been like and what the next few weeks will carry my way.

Earlier today, I went swimming. I’ve been trying to take exercise seriously (how many times have I tried this before) - alternating daily between the gym and the pool for the last two weeks. Sadly, I couldn’t get a good workout today in the pool because it was overrun with a 40-odd-member-strong army of elderly men and women who have raided the local pool on the pretence of practising Aqua Aerobics. I spent the first 30 minutes swimming as fast as I could so that I could keep up with all the regular swimmers but knew that I was getting nowhere when the Aqua Aerobics Army was dismissed by their supreme commander (a very vocal tanktopped woman in her 30s). As if Aqua Aerobics weren’t enough to tire them out, they decided to swim laps in the remaining lanes of the pool. I was victimized by a 70-something year old woman who kicked me on three different occasions as we passed by each other while doing the crawl. Sadly, I had to withdraw from the pool; for I was being taken for cannon fodder by the Aqua Aerobics Army. Come on; I didn’t want to be a floating corpse in the local pool - wouldn’t anyone in my situation do the same (assuming kicking back at at violent 70-something year old women was not an option)?

When I left my room this afternoon for the pool and again later on for a brisk walk around Kunitachi, I noticed that the weather was unusually pleasant; a nice breeze passing over the world and clouds overhead just enough to protect us from July’s unforgiving sun. However, this pleasantness seemed to also bring with it an unusual silence. The rustling of the trees’ leaves made no noise (I guess that means it was much of a rustling, despite the strong breeze). People around me seemed to be moving their mouths while ‘talking’ to each other, but no sound seemed to float through the space in between and around them. Even the music I was listening to on my iPod seemed to be muted. This alarmed me. I shut my iPod for the rest of the day and decided to enjoy the silence for a change and read three chapters in another Orhan Pamuk novel I’m in the middle of. The only explanation I have for today’s global silence was that Mother Nature seemed to have either sighed or daydreamed for a while, just enough for us to get away with the lovely breeze and unusual quiet…

…And to this unusual quiet I will retire tonight.