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Compulsive but not all that Obsessive
Posted on July 19, 2004
I'm not one to poke fun at others metal disorders, but a guy we meet in the elevator today is worth mentioning. From the ground floor to the 5th he assumed responsibility of elevator-man taking charge of the all important open close door buttons. He was what you could call a train geek or "aficionados" as the media calls them here. In a high pitched voice he imitated the train announcements from Shin-Yurigaoka station to Hon Atsugi on the Odakyu line. At the first floor he announced that the train was now leaving Shin-Yurigaoka Sta. bound for Odawara. When we arrived at the third floor he announced we were now pulling into Machida Sta. and politely added that we could transfer to the Yokohama line from here. Immediately as we departed the third floor he announced that the next station would be Hon Atsugi. Now this is where it all went wrong. See, the next station after Machida is Sagamiono, which was the station we were actually at, and following Sagamiono and before you get to Hon Atsugi you have to go through Ebina as well. The fact that he completely omitted two major express stations made me question really how "obsessive" this guy was. Maybe it's just plain old compulsive disorder, who am I to judge.
Maybe my expectations were set to high by hollywood, but to me it's like Rainman asking his brother to drive him to K-Mart for boxer shorts with the name Linda on them. Though in his defense he was very polite as he held the doors open and thanked us for flying Odakyu train lines.
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hey, my family and i met this guy too while trying to find the right kanji in front of a station map. took us to the tickets machine, rode with us to the first stop and repeated the train announcements just like you said. we thought he was pretty helpful but then he asked for money for his services. i gave him a couple hundred yen and was a little disappointed when he asked for more.
::posted by: phil at February 14, 2005 09:59 PM
