One Hundred Yen

I swim in the local swimming centre at least twice a week, it’s a great laugh nattering with the grannies in the changing room. They refuse to believe I speak no Japanese and I refuse to stop trying to teach them English. So it’s general a complete fumble of sentences where nobody understand anyone but themselves, but it’s great fun, the old ones are always the most entertaining! They usually come in pairs and you can tell by the intensity of their conversations that they are doing some serious gossiping. Sometimes I get the joy of catching the aerobics class in one half of the pool, it’s very tricky to concentrate on my lengths when there 10 or so Obachans (grannies) rocking out to Katy Perry. Dang they got moves!
Last Thursday I headed to the pool after work and arrived up to the counter to stamp my ticket. From when I step into the building they usually welcome me very enthusiastically but this time they were congregating a bit more, strange I thought, but I just kept smiling and saying hello. So one of them hands an envelope to me (I’m really confused here) it had ALT (stands for Assistant Language Teacher) on the front of it, the man keeps saying “locker”, then he opened it and produced a small note with a 100yen coin celotaped to it. So I think they are trying to lend me 100yen for my locker, I keep refusing saying I have loads thanks, I even showed him my wallet. Turns out some cute little Obachan had handed it in last week after I forgot to take it after my swim. They had kept it for at least four days, watching for me to come back. How can this not make you smile, I could not believe it, I was genuinely so shocked at the care and effort that had gone into trying to get me back my 100yen, which is the equivalent of one euro. The guilt of all the euro’s I had ever found in lockers and pocketed washed over me within an instant. Damn these grannies have got some seriously A+ levels of honesty, as well as kick ass hiphop moves.

When I grow up I want to be a Japanese Obachan.

Obachans are like the sun, they brighten up the world with their wisdom!