Two days ago I was waiting for a friend in a JR station out here in Saitama and a lady walked up to me and started a conversation in the normal way: "Where are you from?" This is quite common when you hang oaround in public places out here. But then, instead of telling me how bad her English is but how much she loves to talk to foreigners, she tells me that the (1-year-old) Princess Aiko is a criminal and should have some sort of incomprehensible and presumably bad thing done to her through the use of a device resembling a piano with 6 or 7 keys which she had sketched out on a sheet of paper, seemingly while in the midst of a fever dream. Presumably this has to to do with the lack of a male heir to the throne following the current prince. Not that I could discern anything of the sort from this woman's ramblings. I must admit to having been completely at a loss for words in any language and just standing there staring and saying "etoooo, etooo" until she walked away.


