Story of two impressions left on Japanese persons

Hello All,

I might have mentioned it to some of you, but in case I have not, I have started swimming 4 or 5 days a week in the river outside our house. It is easy going when the weather is warm, but when it is cold and raining the swimming is a little bit more challenging. Getting into the water when it is cold is one reason, but swimming in higher water volume is the main issue. Anyways... on with the story.

Last week I was swimming after it rained for a few days, so the river was up a bit. As I was getting used to the water temperature, I saw a lady walking across the bridge and a big gust of wind came up, blowing her hat off and down into the river. Looking down and seeing where her hat landed, she immediately turned back to her house to retrieve another hat. She then proceeded to go on her way to the bus stop wearing another hat.

Seeing where her hat landed, just shy of hitting the water, but it was also not reachable by any means but swimming or wading through some deep and fast moving water, I wandered if I could get it. As I looked at how I might get to the other side of the river to retrieve it, I knew that I would have to go up river for my departure, since the flow would carry me down stream pretty quickly. Once I had warmed up a bit, I thought I would get my exercise and do a good deed!

As I made my way swimming up my side of the river, I came to an older man fishing near where I estimated I needed to start from, in order to get near where the ladies hat was. I said in my best Japanese something like, "Hello sir, excuse me for getting in your way (by swimming near him), wow that is a nice fish you caught there (he just caught a little fish.)"
This old man was not the friendly sort, and it was obvious by the way he looked at me that I was not welcome near him. Then he started to lecture to me in Japanese about why I should get the h*ll away from him. I thought to myself, should I try to explain to him that I was trying to do something nice for this lady, but I decided this might make things worse. I figured he would figure it out once I had the hat. As I stood up and started to walk out into the river towards the place I wanted to be, his grumbling continued and intensified. Then I think he was surprised and started to quite down as I started swimming across the river, perhaps he was thinking that I was really crazy, not just acting crazy.

At this point I should mention that I am the only person that swims in this river now. Shiho and her friends did when they were children, but then they built a pool at the local school and no one seems to have in the past 20 years or so. So it is not uncommon for me to have people stop on the road or bridge to watch me swim. I really don't care, and I even find it to be somewhat humorous actually. Those tour buses that go by have a lot of heads that turn as well...

Anyways I landed exactly where I wanted to on the other side. After a few moments of looking in the bushes, I found it and started looking for a place to leave from to get back. I ended up directly across from the old man, whom was still giving me crazy looks, but he was still silent anyways. As I departed my side of the river, swimming directly towards him, I think he understood my logic in swimming up towards him now. As I was being swept down 100 meters or so, I was able to exit and place the hat near my stuff on the bank of the river. I want back to swimming to complete the 30-40 minutes of swim time, and he no longer bothered to look at me, but I think he may have still been a little upset... although maybe he was embarrassed, well probably not.

In conclusion, the woman had written her name in the hat, so it was easy for Shiho's mom to give her a call and let her know we had it. I hear she was very happy to get it back and she said to say thank you when it was returned to her.

2 encounters and 2 impressions... they will not all be happy, but they will all have an impression!