Commuting Peeve

I was going to write this posting last week, when the peeve was fresh in my mind from the commute. But then the weekend intervened and the pain of the commute became a distant memory.

The great thing about living in Tokyo is you don't need a car. I haven't driven in over a year and don't miss it AT ALL. Really, efficient public transportation is the wave of the future that the US isn't riding. On the downside, because it is public, it can get crowded with.. the public.

My commute now is 30 minutes "door to door". That's great for Tokyo. My commute is:

10-15 minutes from house to station (downhill)
8 minutes on subway
10-15 minutes from station to work (flat).

My commute when I first moved to Japan was:
5 minutes to station.
45 minues of sheer hell on a train so crowded my feet didn' touch the ground and I still stood upright
10 minutes from station to work

I wanted to kill myself and everyone around me. And I'm a pretty friendly, loving person. Moving was good!

Even so, being around a lot of people does produce some commuter rage. Safer than road rage because I'm not in control of a large vehicle that I can ram up the ass of the driver/commuter in front of me.

So.. the pet peeve of my commute is the little pitter patter of Japanese women running in their ridiculous high heels. The thing is, they can't run. I want to turn around and snarl, "Jeezus, you run like a girl." But that isn't fair because women can run. What I mean to say is, "That wobbly, foot slappin burst is unsightly and the sound is very annoying.". Because they wear these heels that don't really stay on their feet. So the sound isn't pitter patter but Slap, slap, slap, slap... all along the platform or down the escalator or whatever.

I thought this pet peeve was just me but NO! All of my friends also feel a bit irritated by the slip slap of tiny high heels.

Pet peeves......

Pitter patter, slip slap