I love the weekend

They say that you can't appreciate the sun without the rain.  I'd like to add that you can't appreciate the weekend until you have worked every possible second of the weekday. 

Japan changes on the weekends.  From Monday to Friday it's suit and tie 'til ya die, but Saturday morning is always so peaceful and fresh.  Even the sun seems to shine brighter.  It's like springtime, once a week.  One of my favorite things about Saturday is that I meet with a friend who is tutoring me in Japanese.  Around 5 p.m. I catch the train from Hon-Atsugi Station, actually find a seat on the usually sardine-can packed Shinjuku express, and head a few stops away to Machida.  I usually try to arrive early to take in the sights before meeting with my friend.  I sit outside the station, in this open square, and it feels like I am back in Spain in the Plaza Mayor.  The sun is beginning to set, and everything looks softer.  The tall buildings surrounding me, glowing orange in the setting sun, start to cast their long shadows on the streets below.  The guy working at the pharmacy shouts to the crowd about his superior, and lower-priced goods, while women in dark, skinny jeans and impossible heels clip by, in rhythm with the tinkling of a million cellphone charms dangling from back pockets.  A group of older women in kimonos shuffle past and hurry into the station, while the policeman looks on from the doorway of his security booth.  A guy in his twenties smokes a cigarette while texting a friend and chatting with another.  He adjusts his Louis Vuitton fanny pack, which he is wearing backwards so as not to obscure the enormous "D&G" logo on his belt.  His patchwork jeans are tucked into lace-up red leather boots.  Finished with his cigarette and his texting, he and his friend gallop away to begin their night on the town.  A train appears a block away and pulls into the station.  Some people quicken their pace to make a connecting train, while others try to duck out of the way.  Shortly after my friend arrives, breathlessly apologizing for making me wait.  I smile.  Trust me, I say,  It was my pleasure.