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I wasn’t in the best of moods as my feet hit the platform of Shinbashi station - half the trains had been cancelled on that line and I ended up having to wait 20 minutes for one and was consequently late.

Anyway I trundle off the train and am stopped by an older Japanese man who has a backpack, ground cover sheet and can of beer in his hand.

“AH!”, he exclaims at me. “Rosanna da!”

Now I’ve heard that I vaguely resemble this talento before.  I laughed - well chortled in a sarcastic way and went to go.

This man had other ideas though. He blocked my way and kept insisting that I was Rosanna. I kept insisting back that I wasn’t.

“Then you must be Romanian!” he says finally, after I have told him 20 times in both English and Japanese that I’m an Australian web designer, not a famous Italian singer. This new tactic however has confused us both and I have managed to edge my way in between him and the edge of the platform.

Of course by this time everyone else on the Shinbashi platforms have stopped to be entertained by this street theatre.

And with one last scream of “I’m a bloody Aussie!” I dash down the steps to escape to the Ginza line.

Halfway down I hear an outburst of song coming from the platform…I speed up…and disappear.

• Obviously an eikaiwa student doing his “Ro_____” vocabulary practice for the week.

  Kristen
  05/02/09 12:57 AM

• Aside from the major fact that it was another minor pain in your ass that day, it was a cute story.

  Alan
  05/02/09 12:24 PM

• > and I ended up having to wait 20 minutes

  I remember when I lived in Melbourne, and a 20 minute wait for the train was normal.  Those were really the bad old days and I’ve become so spoilt living in Tokyo.

  Paul
  05/02/11 01:20 AM