It was a chilly morning of a day without clouds screening out the sunlight. After the normal routine of walking his two beloved dogs earlier in the morning, a light stretching workout, and checking emails, he decided to do something slightly different. He started to take a walk to a convenience store to buy some dried beef which the dogs would love to have for a snack.

The store was only two minutes away on foot. There were hundreds of them it seemed, in a city of only slightly more than 200,000 people. He lived in Numazu, a city in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. The store he was headed for was fairly small and usually packed with people who would stop by before going to work to buy necessities such as a boxed meal for lunch time at work, and students who loaded up with goodies and drinks before getting to school.

There were over 40 people packed into the store that morning, so in order to avoid accidentally bumping into someone, he headed down a fairly clear aisle which had stationery, toiletries, and laundry supplies and would lead him to the pet goods area around the corner.

There was only one person in the aisle, a young boy who was fairly tall for his age. Seeing his school uniform, he knew right away that the boy attended a junior high school which was only a ten minute walk away. The boy was looking at a shelf on the left side of the aisle with men’s hair tonic and cologne on it. As soon as he passed by the boy he felt a sudden movement and quickly glanced back. What he saw was lot less of a shock than it was a disappointment. The boy was starting to put a small bottle of cologne into his inner uniform jacket pocket.

He could not ignore what was going on and rationalize that this was none of his business. Having experienced teaching in the classroom, he had a pretty good idea of the negative and possibly violent reaction he would get if he verbally tried to stop the boy.

The thought that crossed his mind just before he quickly pivoted to catch the boy off guard and reach his hand before the bottle was put into his pocket was, sometimes “action speaks louder than words.”

His right hand went over the back of the boy’s right hand, with his index finger extended and about two inches above the main bone of the wrist. His thumb was below the wrist at the base of the boy’s palm. His left hand quickly caught the bottle which didn’t make it to the pocket and caught it before it dropped to the floor. After the quick catch, he raised his left arm with the outer flesh of the arm outward to block what was more of an attempted scratch at the eyes than a gouge, but the boy’s left hand never reached its intended target. The boy was feeling real pain from the push being applied to the pressure point in his wrist.

All the man was doing was gently levering the wrist up with his thumb while angling down and into the pressure point with the bone at outer base of his index finger.

The boy went down on one knee and said, in a hushed voice, “I was stupid.” “I’m sorry.”

The man replied in a normal voice, but he was never known to mumble, “Are you all right?” “You almost fell and dropped this bottle.”

The boy took the bottle, returned it to the shelf, said he wasn’t feeling very well and that he should get to school. The man advised him to always eat breakfast in the morning to keep his energy level high.

As he paid for the his dog’s beef jerky treats, the store manager bowed deeply and graciously while thanking him for his help.