Hey Tokyo! What part of DISABLED don't you understand?!

Now here is a true rant:

I have the ultimate love/hate relationship with this city. there are days when i hate it and days when i love it. these days, i'm hating it. first of all, the whole damn city is so handicap unfriendly. there are tons of stairs and you really gotta get your walk on in order to get anywhere. escalators and elevators are fairly far apart for a one legged english teacher and the bathrooms leave you with either choosing to wait for a "western style" toilet or peeing down your leg and into your cast if all they have are squatters. restaurants pack in so many tables that a person in my current condition can hobble between the tiny crevices between tables which leave you no space for your crutches. oh the joys of trying to eat in a restaurant in tokyo.

but the worst part of this damn city right now are the fucking people. people refuse to get out of my way despite the fact that most of the time, i can only go straight. crowds of drunks commune in masses at night leaving me to attempt to hobble around them. HELLO? WHAT PART OF "I AM ON FUCKING CRUTCHES" DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND? middle aged women and all the olds stare at me with sneers wondering why i'm moving so slowly or why i'm in THEIR way. Gee, if ya take a glance at the fucking cast of my leg and the crutches which are keeping me from falling flat on my face, you'd kinda get a picture. but the public transportation bugs me most of all. These selfish little tokyoites (in PERFECT HEALTH, mind you) refuse to make space for me on the trains, buses, and elevators even when they are in the PRIORITY SEATS which are designated especially for people like, oh let's just say, ME. i like the sad little attempts that the few karmically guilty people make to give up their seat to me WHILE THE BUS OR TRAIN IS MOVING. Ya know, i think i'll pass cuz if i let go of this pole that i am HANGING ONTO FOR DEAR LIFE WHILE THE VEHICLE IS MOVING, I'LL DIE. but thanks anyway. This is an official notice to let you know that your karma sucks and you are all going to hell.

We have this one student at my school who is handicapped and he's always angry. he's like one of the angriest little men on two wheels that i've ever met in my life. i always used to think to myself, "dude, why is that guy so pissed off?" but now i know why. he's pissed off because HE LIVES IN TOKYO. i've become him. but i have it easy because, God willing, i will have my cast off in another month and i won't have to keep hobbling around this damn town. I am a tourist (much the same way that people go gay just for their college years); and although i'm hating this city right now, i go to bed at night with the comfort of knowing that this is not a permanent situation for me. my angry wheelchair-bound student doesn't get to go to bed with that thought. so in a sense, i am lucky.

i am currently sporting a walking cast but i destroyed the soft rubber stopper like hoof at the bottom of my cast in less than a week so i had to redesign a hoof for myself today. i chose cork but we'll see how long that lasts. if it lasts a week, i'll be surprised. but that last one that the doc put of me was a piece of crap. and i went around littering tiny pieces of rubber as i hobbled around the city. not good. i've even had to buy a door knob cover to put on it when i get home because it's just kinda yucky. and they don't make shoes for stumps. i wonder what people with peg legs do.

at any rate, i am trying my best to lead my normal life minus the mobility factor. i am working at full capacity again (although not at full speed) and i'm starting to eat out the contents of my packed pantry because i'm too lazy to hobble to the super market. and yes, i'm back to using the retard backpack so everyone can see me coming from a mile away. where's yoko? oh, she's the one with the BRIGHT RED BACKPACK and the CRUTCHES walking like a very bad impression of the hunchback of notre dame meets paddington bear (cuz i always wear my trench coat).

let's hope the cast comes off soon lest i really do find myself doing my rants from a real asylum.