When Things Go Awry....

A friend of mine came over to Tokyo, daughter and husband in tow, from Canada several weeks ago.  We made arrangements to meet up on Sunday the 20th.  Concurrently, a co-worker was down in Tokyo on vacation.  Before he had departed we made plans to drop in on a mutual acquaintance who is now living in Tokyo.  Since this was all arranged using LINE there was no element of surprise.  Yuko, our mutual acquaintance, was told ahead of time we were planning to go to the cafe/bar where she works.  I took the time to take screenshots from the Apple Map application to show my co-worker where exactly in Shinjuku to wait for me.

So, as I arrived at Tokyo station on Saturday night I sent a LINE message to my co-worker.  His response was "F***, I'm in Chiba.  I forgot what day it is.".  Okay.  That definitely wasn't the response I was expecting.  I sent a query asking if he was going to start heading back to Tokyo.  No response.  I said to myself, "The heck with him" and made my deliberate way to the Burger King in the Kabuki-cho district of Shinjuku.  I sent a LINE message to my co-worker advising him that the Whopper I had just inhaled was good.  "Boy, you're fast" was his response.  Which basically told me that he hadn't budged an inch off the bar stool he was sitting on in Chiba.  After I had checked in at the capsule hotel I had made a reservation at, I headed off to Yotsuya San-cho-me on my own.  I met up with Yuko who was a bit surprised to see me without my co-worker in tow.  Needless to say she was less than impressed with his performance when I told her what he was up to.

I spent about a day and half taking my friend and her daughter around a number of spots in Tokyo.  Her husband came down with a cold so he was mostly bedridden for two days, Sunday the 20th and Monday the 21st.  Sunday afternoon was spent shopping in the area just east of Shinjuku station.  The crowds weren't too bad so it wasn't an exhausting experience.  We checked on her husband around 5pm and then headed out for dinner.  I couldn't find the place I had in mind so we settled on a yakitori restaurant.

We covered a lot more ground the next day: Harajuku (specifically the first few blocks of Takeshita Dori), Meiji Jingu, Roppongi (for the express purpose of going to a Sushizanmai restaurant a friend of mine frequents), and Odaiba.  We purchased day passes to ride the Yurikamome line and used it enough to get our money's worth hopping on and off a couple of Yurikamome line stations..  Didn't do any shopping in Odaiba but we checked out the beach side park, the life size Gundam robot, and the Toyota centre next to Venus Fort.  They have a new program for the Toyota ride simulator so we checked that out.  My friend's daughter, who just turned 12, thought the ride was the highlight of the day....

-*- 

Postscript:  One of the shops I checked out on Sunday morning, before my friend arrived in Tokyo from Kawaguchi-ko (next to Mt. Fuji), was Kinokuniya Books.  It goes without saying that my wallet became a touch lighter after my visit there.  I picked up a copy of a somewhat thick magazine whose current issue is focused on manga-ka Eguchi Hisashi.  When I got to the floor where they sell foreign language books and magazines I more or less just wandered around.  Then I got to the section where they have their selection of novels.  I don't know why but I remembered then reading a review of Yann Martel's latest novel.  But I couldn't remember the title of the book.  I found several books by Martel though.  I ended up buying two...but I can't remember their titles right away as I had the store clerk make book covers for my purchases....

Unexpected....

A few weeks ago an acquaintance had called me up to check that I was free on the evening of March 12th.  He said that a friend of his from Vancouver would be in Yonezawa that night and he wanted me to meet his friend.  I said I had no plans that night and it was agreed upon to get together.

Last night I was sitting at home and the fellow gave me a call.  I agreed to meet him at the bar where we had first met, a place called Nishiki which is run by a Chinese lady.  I got there before my acquaintance's party so I just took a seat and nursed my drink.

About 20 minutes later my acquaintance arrived with a party of about 7 people in tow.  I transferred my seat over to an area which could accommodate the larger group.  As I did so I recognized one of the women.  It was Sachiko.  I had met her in January at the annual Yonezawa International Relations Association mochitsuki.  She was a bit surprised to see me.  Next an elder fellow I had never met before addressed me in Chinese.  Sachiko quickly explained to him that I didn't speak Chinese.

As we started to get settled down one fellow looked at me straight and called out me name.  "Is that you!" he exclaimed.  I looked at him.  Didn't immediately recognize him.  Then he mentioned TELUS.  I thought to myself, "Wait a minute, this guy looks familiar!". 

Long story short...yes, he was a former co-worker.  His name is Raymond.  We had worked together on a project back in the late 1990s.  He had left TELUS in 2005.  Presently, he's in Japan to visit his son who works in Tokyo.  The acquaintance of mine knows Raymond through Raymond's brother.

Needless to say this improbable reunion was quite a treat.  I don't think scale of the improbability of it has quite sunk in yet.  I must say this is one of the biggest surprises I've ever had!

Oops!....

So....  I've been absent from here longer than I had planned.  I had thought about writing a quick set of mini-movie reviews but that all got lost in the helter skelter of events which took place in February. 

It started off with our school's move in late January.  It wasn't so much of an organized event as it was a sequence of things which happened simply that's because those sorts of things happen.  In a way it was similar to my packing up the contents of my condominium prior to my move to Japan: things were happening but not at the right pace to meet deadlines.  Same here.  In the end we tossed out half of what was in the school, scrambled to find some things which had long gone MIA, packed, found ourselves in our new location, and then ordered replacements for the items which we had tossed out but shouldn't have.

Other things which I had to work into my already busy work schedule were plans to take on a new company, a couple of re-scheduled meetings to deal with paper work and class observations, and preparations for a training course in the first week of May.  The last point required a fair bit of time to write up documentation to help my substitute plan her lessons...which all went to naught when she got the stomach flu and had to take a day off from work.  So I'll be teaching those missed lessons in lieu later this month...on a Monday which is usually my day off.

But I suppose the one thing which distracted me from posting here was the news that a close relative has been diagnosed with cancer...stage 3 out of 4 at that.  The news hasn't completely distracted me from my daily routine but it's lurking there in the background.  I'm getting regular updates on his treatments from my sister.  The question of when I'll be visiting Canada will be dependent on his prognosis once they get through the first round of radiation treatment.  There's nothing much I can do from this side of the ocean other than to keep my fingers crossed....