Train and training

When I was in Japan, the train system was so punctual; they ran every 3 minutes. They apologized seriously if one of their trains didn’t come to the station on time. The announcement said ‘We are so sorry but our next train left the previous station 2 minutes later than our schedule.’ And most of the people complained, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s not my day!’ …I was one of them.

I moved to American Samoa 4 years ago. Everything on the Island was so----- slo-----w; the fastest speed limit on the highway was 25 mph; when they said ‘a week from today’ they meant ‘one day if you were lucky’; I couldn’t tell that people were walking or standing still. It was a tough training for surviving in the slow environment.

Then I moved to Hawaii at the end of last year. This is the world of normal speed. If people say a week from today, it means a week from today. I can tell people are walking or running, highways are real highways. To be honest, I felt 'Goodness, it is too fast!' for a while.

I met a Japanese couple today and they were complaining about the train system nowadays in Japan; it was becoming less on time, stressing them out. They expected me to agree but I simply couldn’t. Oh well, I guess the survival training in American Samoa made me more tolerant for train delays. Phew!