Oddities

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When living in an other country you notice little oddities that would be totally unthinkable in other parts of the world again.
The Japanese like to occupy a seat before going to get whatever it is that they want (be that a coffee, ramen etc.). They do this by putting their (hand)bag with their personal belongings on the table or even their cell phone. They then leisurely stroll around doing what they have to do and return to find the cell phone or anything else that they have put down for that matter still there. And everybody respects it too. Everywhere else it would have gone in the blink of an eye but not here in Japan.
The other thing here is the seating in the street car. In the beginning I made the mistake of getting up for mothers with children, old battle axes with tons of shopping or any body else that would be more in need of a seat then me. After getting up and offering your seat to a mother she would then put her child on the vacated seat and remain standing. The old women would put their grocery bags on the seat and would also remain standing in a choc-a-bloc street car.
In other words I had vacated a seat for mere grocery bags.!!!
The school kids have caught on to this odd way of behaving (in my humble view) and really do not even think of getting up for the elderly or mothers.

My thanks by the way to known and unknown sympathizers for my temporary infliction of self pity. It has certainly has helped for me to get a clearer focus on what's important and what is absolutely not.