Sugai worked at resort hotels for most of his life, and just five years ago oversaw 50 workers at a hotel in Karuizawa, the traditional getaway for the Japanese upper crust in the mountains west of Tokyo. But like many hotels built during the bubble economy, this one went bankrupt. Because of his age, he was unable to find another job and began working as a day laborer at construction jobs.
"My strength declined when I turned 50 and I couldn't carry heavy things anymore," he said. One hot day two summers ago, he collapsed on a construction job. "I decided to take it easy for a while and then eventually I came here under the bridge a year ago," he said.
In that time, boys had attacked him three times. In early September, he had gone out one night to a grocery store, a little drunk, when three boys called out to him, "Old man, come here!"
"`This is bad,' I remembered thinking. They go after the weak. In Japan, there is a tendency to go after the weak."
He did not want to talk about it anymore. The sun never shone under the bridge and with the approach of winter, Sugai shivered in a sweatshirt. He went to pet his rabbit.
Next to the nearby tennis court, a young woman and man dressed in white were playing badminton. They did not seem to see the people under the bridge.
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