Be Careful What You Say

I was in Trader Joe's today, getting too much junk and not enough food, when I noticed two guys. Japanese guys. They stuck out because they were dressed in that just-off-the-plane J-hip style that you see on the Travel Channel. You've seen it, guys with spiked hair, wearing keffiyehs as scarves, chains attached to black jeans, shirts that on anyone other than a Japanese guy would probably be girl's shirts. Then I saw two more. And two more besides. Suddenly there were a lot of hip young Japanese guys wandering around the trail mix section.
   CalTech is less than a mile away, and I was guessing that these guys were visiting the University. They had that kind of 'scientist vibe' only people who are deep academics give off. Nerd is universal, it sticks out no matter where you're from. These guys were wandering around Trader Joe's in a daze, as I was when I went into a Japanese grocery store and couldn't tell the candy from the dishwashing soap.
   So I said to myself 'looks like the bus just pulled up.'
   I finished my purchases and walked out. And, sure enough, there was the bus. Really. One of those big white tour buses. Parked right in front of the shabu-shabu place, ironically enough.
   I kind of felt like a jerk. I mean, these guys are just stopping off for some groceries and I have to assume they're like a tour group at the Vatican or something. More than likely they were on a bus because none of them has a valid US driver's license, and it's easier to keep the group together when you're on a vehicle that can carry everyone at once. What kind of a-hole was I to crack wise about tour groups just because they were Japanese?
   So I went to the next grocery store to get stuff I can't get at Trader Joe's. And when I got out, there was the bus again. The Japanese guys were filing into Starbuck's for a latte, carrying their Trader Joe's re-usable fabric bags. Which meant the bus really was a tour bus, and the Japanese guys were using Sunday to visit American landmarks. I had made a crass assumption, but it turned out to be right.
   I thought about following the bus to see where it went next, but I was afraid they'd stop at McDonald's.