Finally bitten

(Jerry, this one's for you. You see, you said that one of these days I'd learn my lesson, and it happened, more prominently than other times, recently. From now on, I'll mind the amount I drink (well, of course, no I won't), and I'll be more careful about what I say when doing so...)

In my life, I've been called many things, but never arrogant. I don't like to think that it would be a word used to describe me. Although others might say so, I would never consider myself to be strong, or even confident either. But, on the night in question, I was overly all three. Now, my excuse will be a bottle of wine, but, needless to say, I found myself in a situation that ended quickly, but brought that embarassing 'did-I-really-say-that' feeling to my stomach for the next three days.

Late (rally late) the other night, as my friends and I were running to catch the last trains (with pig's foot in tow), we were hurried by a conductor to run to the train before the doors closed. Having just made it, and shoving our way on, we sighed relief. But, the people directly behind us made a comment, in Japanese, about foreigners, that I partially understood (*partially understood = heard her say 'foreigners'). So, a loud-ish voice, I said to my friends (and, in hindsight, hopefully said quickly, so that maybe I wasn't understood) 'I can't wait until these people behind me start talking about us in Japanese, and I turn around and let them know I know exactly what they're saying.' I guess I thought I was pretty tough and smart (and MAYBE a bit on the too-much-to-drink side) in front of my non-Japanese speaking friends.

But, an instant later, when the train announcer came on to announce the next station, we started questioning whether we were on the right train. So, loud-ish like (again, sorry about that), my friends started looking at the train schedule and wondering out loud whether the train was going where we needed it. As the train slowed to the next station, and we started to realize that we were on the right train, just going in the wrong direction, the Japanese lady (from earlier) behind me spoke out, in perfect English:

"Yep. You guys are on the wrong train. Ozone is the other way."

Oops.