Tiffany flexed her shoulders and shot a look in the mirror to check her appearance for the last time before she would return to the endless aisle of un-checked tickets. Ticket conductors have to dress neatly, behave politely yet upright, she heard a foreign voice preaching inside her head. Nevertheless it could have been her own voice talking but she didn’t pay attention to such a thing anymore. During countless shifts spent working in a high speed train, which was taking its passengers straight from Tokyo to Osaka, there weren’t usually many occasions in which she needed to use her voice. “Hello”, “The Tickets please”, “Thank You” was basically all she needed to say. Quite ironically since Tiffany came to Japan to clench her live-long cultural interest and finally master the language, but she ended up being an ordinary ticket conductor in the end, dumped by a couple of air-headed boyfriends. Sometimes she caught herself wondering how many of the passengers whose tickets she had checked over the course of time actually noticed that she way actually Korean. Men usually just acknowledged her by staring shamelessly at her and girls didn’t even bother to look up when she was passing by. What a nice work environment…

With a sigh escaping her lips she narrowed her head and washed her hands carefully in the sink. In a few minutes they would have passed the exterior districts of Tokyo and she would start making her check-round through the never-ending aisle like every day. She straightened her back again and looked outside of the small toilette window. The houses just kept passing on, the apartment clusters gradually thinning out. She turned around, leaned against the small sink and crossed her arms for a last moment of recreation before the train finally stopped at the awaited station and moved on within a matter of mere seconds.

When the train had reached its full speed Tiffany opened the door to her work and started checking the tickets in her usual routine. Today the train wasn’t that well boarded for a Monday morning, just a couple of middle-aged business men were enjoying the fast train ride. She deftly checked one passenger after another, one wagon after another.

Due to the little amount of passengers she quickly reached the last wagon. To her surprise the wagon was seemingly empty, but she was told to fully check empty wagons as well, so she raised her voice just for fun.

“The tickets please!” her clear voice resonated fully within the wagon.  At her announcement someone suddenly began rummaging behind the empty seats, apparently fishing for the ticket. Tiffany casually wandered down the aisle to the last seats, where a delicate dressed young woman was still engaged in putting her briefcase in order.

Probably a foreign business woman, Tiffany thought in awe. At a closer look she noticed the short blonde hair, the tips dyed in light pink. She wore a plain suit but at the first glance Tiffany could clearly see that the cut suited her figure all too well, making her feel a little bad for her plain uniform. The woman granted her a curious look while her hand reached inside her jacket for the ticket.

“Here” she said, stretching the syllable a little and handed her the ticket, not breaking the look. “Thank you.” Tiffany quietly took the tickets and set the first stamp. “저기요. 혹시
한국인이죠?” (Excuse me, are you Korean by chance?)  Hearing the woman addressing her using her mother tongue petrified her instantly. “네, 어떻게...” (Yes, how..) Tiffany replied faintly. “Well, your accent is unmistakable for a native speaker!” The woman went on in fluent Japanese, her sharp eyes still fixed on Tiffany. Her steady gaze made Tiffany feel uncomfortable under her skin and she could already feel the heat radiating from her glowing cheeks. Swiftly she narrowed her head and concentrated on stamping her ticket. “To: Osaka Central Station” was printed in the destination caption. Tiffany held her breath.

Ever since she had started working for the train company that woman in front of her was probably the first woman who traveled alone all the way from Tokyo down to Osaka. Business women were usually travelling in smaller groups or just went for smaller distances, for they usually preferred planes to trains for long distance trips.

Tiffany set the last stamp carefully and handed her the ticket back, which the woman immediately stowed in her briefcase under a pile of documents. “Thank you then.” The woman said, her nod telling Tiffany to go. A quick ‘good bye’ stumbled haltingly over her lips and Tiffany quickly turned around and left the strange woman in the wagon behind.