The following is an outtake from You Can't Spell Tokyo Without K.O.: A photo-essay dissecting the Japanese epidemic of passing out in public.
This text was ultimately edited out of the final version for one
reason or another (redundant, or didn't fit the book's tone, or
distracted from the book's main themes, etc.), but I'm including it here
because at least one beta reader mentioned that he or she found it
worth reading.
Every so often, those struggling to stay awake will attempt to feign consciousness, as perhaps was the case with this gentleman who held his mobile phone in the general vicinity of his ear. If he intended this as a decoy, the calm silence of the early morning train station gave him up, exposing the unmistakable sound emanating from beneath his low-tucked cap: choppy, irregular gasps of snoring that continually unclogged and then reclogged globs of phlegm in his throat.
The curious placement of his right hand raises more questions than it answers. The manner in which his thumb lodged in the fold of his shirt suggests that perhaps his hand simply fell that way, but the remaining four digits curl slightly inward, cupping his genitals and suggesting a wide range of other possibilities.
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| Trying to Get a Grip on Himself |
Every so often, those struggling to stay awake will attempt to feign consciousness, as perhaps was the case with this gentleman who held his mobile phone in the general vicinity of his ear. If he intended this as a decoy, the calm silence of the early morning train station gave him up, exposing the unmistakable sound emanating from beneath his low-tucked cap: choppy, irregular gasps of snoring that continually unclogged and then reclogged globs of phlegm in his throat.
The curious placement of his right hand raises more questions than it answers. The manner in which his thumb lodged in the fold of his shirt suggests that perhaps his hand simply fell that way, but the remaining four digits curl slightly inward, cupping his genitals and suggesting a wide range of other possibilities.
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