March 20, 2014

The kindness of strangers

While eating my sushi breakfast, I chatted with two men seated next to me. They wanted to know if I had any suggestions for exploring Tokyo, turns out they were only there a few days as well. I gave them a few suggestions and told them I was down to my last hour, as I would be heading straight to my hotel to grab the shuttle to the airport. When my bill came, I was told it was cash only. The bill was 4000 yen, and I had 1000 yen and $2. The waiter told me the nearest ATM was 10-15 minutes away. I had 15 minutes to be at my hotel. A wave of panic hit me. One of the men asked, "How short are you?" "Quite a bit" I replied. The man took out a 5000 yen note (around $50), handed it to me along with his business card and said, "Here. You can mail me money from NY." I was shocked. I told him I had never had a random stranger do something so nice for me before. Between the friendly man at the fish market and this generous man, I felt incredibly fortunate! It was certainly a lesson in generosity!

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