Lost in sadness..

About two stops into my journey home a couple got on the train.  He was dressed in a white button up shirt and slacks and I assume he was an IT worker.  He was leading a girl who seemed really tired or possibly drunk.  She was cute and was wearing a blue dress, a cardigan, tights and Mary Jane shoes.  Her manicure was perfect.  He wedged her into the only open seat in our car right between a group of Frenchmen.  I tried not to stare.  After all, it's rude to stare but soon after she sat, tears started to roll down her cheeks.  The man, who I now noticed was carrying her purse as well as his bag and some shopping bags, got a small pink towel out of her bag and roughly dabbed at her cheeks.  After a while, I realized that his method wasn't meant to be cruel, it was just the best he knew how to do.  After the Frenchmen left, she hunched over in her seat and broke out into a full sob.  He continued to mop up her tears, he got her tissue and he even awkwardly patted her on the head from time to time.  My guess was that he was not the cause of her tears.  She couldn't even lift her hands to dab her own tears for a great while.  It wasn't until just before my stop that she took tissues from him and tended to her own tears.  When I disembarked, she was holding his hand.  I tried to make up a story about them as to why she was so sad that she displayed this sadness on a train in Japan where this kind of behavior is most certainly frowned upon.  I came up with nothing.

I don't know why this affected me so much.  Watching this scene unfold, I many times came near tears myself.  Maybe on some superficial level I felt I could relate to her.  I've been on a train, in Japan and sobbing but with no one to take care of me.  If we had been in America, I might have asked her if she was okay.  I really felt like she could use a hug but Japan stopped me from doing either of these things as I'm just supposed to (like everyone else) pretend this isn't happening.  I hope she's okay.  I honestly do.  I hope that tomorrow is a better and brighter day for her.