Friends: week 2

Friday, Jan 9th-
I went out to see Yoshio and Jeff from my frisbee team play in their band in an Irish pub in Jiyugaoka. I don't know why I haven't done it before, since Jiyugaoka is just a couple of stops down the Toyoko line from me. As it happened, it had been Jeff, Sarah and Luke's birthdays all on the previous Wednesday, so there was a call to go out posted on the team online forum.
In the pub, I met Minako, wife to Jacob, stalwart of the B-team ("Kuru") with whom I play. Jacob and Minako got married at Meiji Jingu last autumn, in a full, traditional Japanese ceremony. They make a lovely couple.
I also met Ben. Actually, I met him at frisbee a few nights previously but didn't really chat that much to him. Tonight I did. He's a University lecturer on Linguistics based in Hawaii and he sometimes comes to Japan to lecture here. He seemed to know everyone on the frisbee team really well. Ben told me all about 'Lei', the flower necklace greeting at the airport. I was under the impression it was a tradition extended to every beggar and baron that stepped off the plane by a funnel of beautiful Hawaiian women. It's not.

Saturday Jan 10th-
Another bad friends day. No-one in particular but I like to think I cemented a friendship with Hiro, tv actor and part-time bartender at the Meguro Tavern where I do a night a week. Lena, the floor-girl, has a thing going on with Kei, the main bartender and the boss refused to extend her hours now that another floor-girl is off back to Germany soon. So she quit, and Hiro was filling in as a floor-girl. he wasn't so convincing in this role. The guy's got to be 6'1" and every bit of him Man (except when he's drinking Red Eye, a mix I'd not heard of nor properly fathomed before I came to Tokyo- half a tomato juice and half a pint of lager).

Sunday Jan 11th-
Justin and Michi, friends from Yamagata are passing through Tokyo on the way back from a holiday in America. They stayed last night and today we hang out together. Michi has plans to meet old friends- first we go to Renoir, a faux-French tea parlour in Shibuya where we spot a famous comedian, whose name no-one can remember but whose tag-line everyone mimics in shockingly abrupt unison, finishing with peals of laughter hastily stifled. I meet Ai-chan, who is affably clumsy with the spoon in her drink and Yoshiko, the one that isn't married. Got both their numbers: friends. 2 for 2, this is looking like a good friends day- I should hang out with friends for making friends of friends more often. Later we go to meet Kanako, another old friend of Michi's. When Michi lived in Tokyo, Kanako was her housemate. Cue girlie squeals and hands held up to mouths. Kanako works in a clothes shop in the ultra-posh Daikanyama area. The shop is an old converted apartment- bathroom, kitchen and living room features are all still visible. We hide away in the storeroom (the next-door apartment) and try on clothes. I quite like a hat and Kanako offers it to me as a present. I figured she must be joking but 2 years in Japan tells me different- Japanese people rarely seem to joke when it comes to ludicrous acts of kindness. She later buys me the hat and Michi a scarf. Michi tells me and Justin Kanako's boyfriend belongs to a ver, very rich family. Recently they bought a building in Ginza, one of the most expensive areas in the world, let alone Japan. Honestly- who buys a building in Ginza? Kanako goes down as a friend- she must be, she bought me a hat.

Monday Jan 12th -
Cruising Precce supermarket and looking for cheap beef for a fried rice recipe, a stranger helpfully asks me if I am ok. Instant friend, he offered to help. I explain I'm looking for cheap beef and he says words to the effect of, 'You won' find that here mate'. I buy some famous Yamagata beef out of proud solidarity (I lived there for 2 years) and feel less cheated for that reason alone.
Evening, another shift in the Meguro Tavern. I met Wuiste (I guess), a Dane with a passion for cats and Cuban cigars. Bald, with a wisened look in his piercing eyes, he buys me a beer, shows me pictures of his pedigree cats on his mobile keitai phone and dreamily recounts a description of one of his cats: ' 6, maybe 7 kilos, very, very muscular...', before he is lost in wonder.

Tuesday Jan 13th -
A man walked up the stairs while I was cooking pasta and introduces himself as Alan. He looked bemused to see me there and I was at a loss as to who he was. We stare at each other for a second, him still in his coat and me with a colinder in one hand and a wooden spoon in the other. I quickly calculate whether they would suffice as a make-shift shield and sword if it came to that, but thankfully, housemate Jon and girlfriend (his, not mine) come bustling up the stairs before the penne starts to fly. Alan, Jon and Tomoko talk business and I feel a bit of a schmuck for having such an incomparably insignificant job as MGM, contact names and embassy talk all kicks off. Maybe I can befriend Alan next time. I'll offer him some pasta, or something.

Wednesday Jan 14th -
Regular conversation student Shun brought his mate Tatsuya to our slot last week, and then brought him to the pub on Monday. Tonight was my first lesson with Tatsuya. Friendship and another student secured...feels like friendship came first. Tatsuya likes British music- even Radiohead! This weekend he and Shun are going ice-fishing. They invited me, but I have to work so I'll miss it. I have no idea how they intend to drill through ice thick enough to support their weight and catch fish. Neither Tatsuya nor Shun seem sure whether or not bait is required.

Thursday Jan 15th -
Another evening under the lights at Hiroo High School, another frisbee practice with plenty of fresh faces. Osa is nice and her team-mates all very friendly too. Sadly Osa and friends disappear quickly once practice is finished, so no chance to have some dinner and drinks with them as usually our team does.

Friday Jan 16th -
Technically another friend-fail day, but I got to know new teacher at our school Daphne a bit more. Ian and his girlfriend Yuko-san, Juri and Daphne all came round for curry and banana bread at my place.