The Killing Time Shuffle

Turn the music on, turn it up loud. If it’s not up loud enough to damage your hearing you can’t hear it over the noise of the train. The familiar clicking and clacking of the Kabe line. There’s never a seat on this stupid train at this time of day. Bored, bored out of your mind. Or at least that’s the affect. If you look like a bored, dangerous youth no one will bother you. It’s loud outside, and inside your head so you turn the music up. The train comes and again, the familiar anti-sexual press of bodies into the train car. Like always, there’s no seat for you. Grab a handle and just hold on. It’s funny to see the women in high heels that toddle and fall as if they aren’t used to their legs. The next song clicks on and it’s not one you want to hear. Shuffle through your Shuffle to find the right song but even when you find it, it’s still not what you want to hear. It’s still not the right song. Suddenly your music collection seems very small. Next to you are a few other denizens of the Kabe line, most wearing headphones or pouring themselves into manga. It’s just another way to kill time in that way that most of your day is killing time. You’re killing 4 years worth of time at Daigaku* that you’ve killed countless hours from birth trying to get into. And here you are, riding the Kabe line, pissed as hell that you can’t sleep on public transit because some parasite single* in a bank uniform just HAS to sit down.

Again the music switches, shuffling the randomness but again it’s not a song you want to hear. What’s the point of a shuffle setting if it never chooses anything worth listening to? The train lurches and keeps going, the only people getting off at the first stop are the people who were standing, still no place to sit. There’s an itch to move, to tap your feet, drum your fingers, anything really. The music has a steady beat that moves into you, twisting your muscles making you want to dance.

Dancing on a train, ridiculous. The most you do is turn towards the woman next to you who hangs, like you do, from the ring. She’s wearing tennis shoes, practical, your age. Maybe even your school. She’s listening to music too, probably tuning out the world just like you. Slowly you twist a little, ever so slightly. She isn’t looking at you but at her MP3 player. You go back to looking at yours, you don’t care, it’s a train. Trains, the ultimate cock-block. And you don’t speak; you just sneak glances at her from the corner of your eye.

But she notices and turns to you. It’s like there is no one else in the train. Her body cheated out to you and you see the punky clothes she wears, who knew hanging could be sexier than clinging?

It happens in a moment, she’s pushed you down on an empty seat and climbed on top of you kissing you and it feels so good and your head phones are turned up so loud you can’t hear her breathing or the gasps of the other passengers and you really don’t care that you’re on a train the place you hate the most and really this won’t lead to anything just killing time between stops but and she kind of looks like you so it’s a bit like making out with yourself that would make a good song oh what a way to kill time and you hope she doesn’t stop.

The train stops, second stop, Mitake. The girl and a few others get off. Still no seat for you. You really did just fantasize about making out with a random chick on the train. You see her leave, she doesn’t look back and you go back to not caring. At least it passed another 10 minutes.

Why is the music never right?

I was on a train to Mitake and happened to grab one of the last seats. In front of me I saw a punkish looking boy who was constantly flipping through his i-pod shuffle (at least I think it was a shuffle). The only time he looked up was when a girl dressed in a similar fashion with similar mannerisms. As soon as she got off the train he curled himself back in and went back to ignoring the world. But for a moment he turned to her and seemed to vaguely interact with h is surroundings.

Daigaku- university, the kanji literally mean Big School.

Parasite Single- women in Japan who are older who don't marry and live with their parents while working.