Daniel wondered if Daesu’s sperm had been affected; if his children would have twelve toes or only one eye. He remembered hearing about the Monju cover-up. Now it was Fukushima. God really hates the Japanese, he thought. Then there was Nagasaki and Hiroshima of course. He supposed that Americans must hate them even more.

He had become a pusher; not the American type that fished for junkies on the streets of black neighborhoods, but the Japanese type that prevented bottlenecks from disrupting the daily schedule of brokers at the Tokyo Stock Exchange with those of the NASDAQ. He shoved a white-collar worker on his way to the cubicle farm into the subway car, although it was on the brink of bursting. But it would not surprise him if a dozen more of them could be packaged. The disheveled Daesu, his fellow pusher, gestured to him to come and help on the other side of the door. Daesu was at risk of being fired. He said something in Japanese to Daniel. The only Japanese words that Daniel knew were arigato and sake, but he did not need to ponder over the meaning in Daesu’s Japanese gibberish. He knew that Daesu wanted him to wear glasses because his eyesight did apparently not meet the Japanese standard. Japanese people probably knew a lot about eyes, Daniel thought. They always kept them open; probably to compensate for their width. In addition, they used that word, eye, as a prefix for every single technological object, whether it be a pod, a pad or a phone. Daniel grabbed another Japenese in a business suit by the arm, while desperately trying to fit through the door. As he pushed him, he inconspicuously twisted his arm in such a way that elicited a faint yelp from the Jap’s mouth. Japanese people never screamed. Maybe Americans did not have the eyes, but they were world champions at screaming, whether it be Superbowl, political rallies or drunken fights. Japanese people were too humble for such antics. Ask them how their kids are doing in school and they’ll say: “The principal is considering expulsion.” In fact, the kid is on his way to develop a new robot dog that will revolutionize the Japanese toy industry. Ask the same question in America and the situation is usually reversed.