On my walk home this afternoon, there was inexplicably a little convention of 5 police officers at the corner in front of the Milky Way, right where I needed to cross the big road to be on my street. I really have no idea why they were there. It was most unfortunate for one of my students that they were there, though. I don’t know what he did, maybe rode his bike too fast on the sidewalk, or went across the street while the crosswalk light was red, or something, but whatever it was, one of the policemen stepped out with his little wand, stopped him, and gave him a ticket. My student needed to go past me to continue on his way, and he was so embarrassed. He came to a stop next to me, but was looking down and away, too ashamed to look at me. When I asked him what had happened, he tried to explain what he had done wrong, but all I caught was, “[Something] is bad. You’re not supposed to [do it].” Poor kid. Getting caught is bad enough, but to have it happen in front of a teacher must be a Japanese student’s worst nightmare, given how much responsibility teachers in Japan are given for basically raising their students. Good thing I’m not his homeroom teacher. He’d wish the ground had swallowed him instead.