I watched 2 happy deaf people on the train.

I ride the train 5 times a week.
You would say its 1 hour and 10 minutes door to door.
I am no longer surprised by the actions or the activities people do.

I could care less if a foreigner doesn't wear a mask or if you're
drinking a beer. Not my problem.

Digging your finger in your ear or squishing a pimple? Why am I not so bothered?

A hot chick with the shortest of skirts. Flawless makeup. Curly extended hair. You know! The women pulling those tiny travel cases on wheels going to work when you seem to be going home from work. Oh-yahh!
Slightly impressed!

Maturely worn 80s fashion or Amura Style with big glasses, bigger hat, and even bigger boots?
Now that's eye candy, but not worth my time. 

Coming from a country where everything matters near or around you. Opening store doors for strangers. Telling a well dressed man or woman that they look good just because you met their eyes for 1 second and said, good afternoon!
A person drops their iPhone while waiting in line at Starbucks and just before it hits the ground, they catch it! Nearly everyone in line who witnessed it would say, "nice catch" and applaud! If someone thought they were attractive, they would even ask them out on a date. "Really!"

Yet, living in Japan has changed me to stone. I no longer feel the urge to say hello. There is no itch to offer my seat on the train to a beautiful woman in high black heels with velvet red soles wearing tight blue jeans.

A boy man spreading, taking up 3 seats. Not my business.

But today, I seemed to have woken up from by day to day sleep walk. The train was quiet. The sound of wind blowing trough an open window. The violent shake of the windows as the train enters the subway or passes another train going the opposite way. The single sound of someone dropping their cell phone or umbrella.

2 young men were sitting across from me.
I don't look at men. My eyes are for women only.

They were the only people on the train enjoying themselves. Oddly sitting closer than usual. Touching in fact. Leaning into each other and having the funfest of time, silently. Only a soft audible laugh could be heard. Not to disrupt the people around them.

I couldn't stop looking.
On a train train where even the best dressed woman is as monotoned as a salaryman suit. Eyes stuck to their phone screens or under their eyelids.
The 2 boys cared less about the people around them as I did, but they were joyful.

The kind of connection any person would wish to have. Family, friends, or lovers.

That invisible but solid link to feelings, thoughts, and emotions.
They were both deaf. Their visual line of sight was 30cm in front. Following every movement or gesture of their hands, then suddenly erupting in a controlled laugh.

I swallowed my heart. It felt sick to feel happy. I held back tears. I wanted to sign to them, "GOOD JOB!"

Truth be said, I don't think no one noticed this blooming beauty on the train or the stone across from it.

No one noticed them nor I.

I'm a stone with eyes.