“Sumimasen”

When you’re at the famous temple in Kyoto* — the one carved into the edge of a forest that clings like a low cloud of green to the mountains forming the city’s western border — and you hear a child, one of the thousands of school-children all dressed in their sharp school uniforms who are making a field trip to the famous temple in Kyoto the same day you are, when you hear one of them near you say, “sumimasen,” then pause and say it again, “sumimasen,” then say it over and over, “sumimasen, sumimasen,” that child is trying to get your attention. He would like you to take a photo of he and his friends.
When the train stops at a station two stations from your stop and everybody but you gets off and stands on the platform, follow them. In ten minutes your train will begin travelling the other direction, back from where you came. Your “sumimasens,” no matter how heartfelt, will not make the train stop.
—————————-
*Kiyomizu Temple, by the way.