The Japanese are not big on PDA. It is rare to find a couple even holding hands, and I don’t think I’ve seen anything past that. I know that if Dan were here I’d probably put my arms around him out of habit, and then have to quickly retract for fear of making myself look like some kind of floozy. Usually the couples who dare touch in public are very young, and there is a timidity about their touching that suggests their awareness of the taboo act.
But this morning I saw the sweetest thing.
The couple was elderly, probably late 60s or early 70’s. The man was looking dapper despite his hunched back, with his striped shirt tucked into his pressed trousers. His wife (I assume it is his wife) wore a hot pink shirt (grandmas can get away with anything) and white pants and this rocking white studded purse. She was a little geriatric hottie! But the best part is the ease in which they held each others’ hands. Her little hand was curled inside his bigger one, and just as I was thinking “They must really be in love,” he sweetly looked down at her and delicately plucked something off the shoulder of her shirt. She looked up at him and smiled, and they stood there waiting at the crosswalk, hand-in-hand, grinning at one another like two school kids in love.