Summer days grow cool
and people bring heat
Today started off as a bit of a failure. The plan was to get
up early, go get tickets for the big sumo tournament, then meet Masa and get my
haircut. Unfortunately, the type of sumo tickets we tried to buy, which are
available only on the day of the event, sold out. Tim, Aykut and I found this out via a
phone call from someone we knew on the final train leg of our journey to the sumo arena. Aykut
headed home but Tim and I decided to carry on and meet the other people we knew
there for some breakfast. I was super glad we did for a few reasons. The fist
was that I ate a delicious French Toast type piece of bread at the cool café we
went to. It was so good I went up and got a second piece. The second was that
Rommy, a fellow Canadian teacher working here, told me a shocking but hilarious
story about a guy who was masturbating behind a vending machine very close to
her apartment that she had seen the night before. The third was that after
breakfast we went outside and a bunch of sumo wrestlers were walking around.
The guys were huge! I took a couple pictures, but got shot down when I asked if
two of them would take a picture with me. At least I talked to some sumo
wrestlers in Japanese.
After that failed venture I headed back to Ikebukuro to meet
my friend Masa so he could show me to his hairdressers and help me explain how
I wanted my hair cut. I was worried I’d be late, and was, but managed to get
there just five minutes behind schedule. I waited for Masa in front of the
magnificent Don Quixote store for about twenty minutes but saw no sign of him. My
only option was to head to the Starbucks down the street for some WiFi to see what happened
to him. By the time I messaged him he was only just getting up! We’d have to
reschedule. Failed venture number two.
Luckily, the afternoon went a lot better. Tim, Aykut and I
met at my apartment to watch some sumo on TV. (More on this in tomorrow’s
entry.)
Now the best part. The night. My dear friend Su-jin was in
town from Korea for the weekend, and had planned a big meet-up with students I
had taught, taken on activities, met, and become friends with in Vancouver. I
brought along and invited some other teachers as well, and we all met in
Shibuya. It was so great to see all the familiar faces that turned up, AND they
had a plan. We all headed to purikura,
which is the extremely popular photo booths where you can take pictures and
print them off to share with your friends. We all jammed into one photo booth,
and took pictures that made us look, men and woman alike, like female
alien characters. It was so hot all crammed into that booth, but I guess it was
worth it for the memories and the absolutely demented photos we now have.
After that bedlam, we went to an izakaya that you had to
enter through a shabby looking elevator, but then was incredibly nice
downstairs. We had nomihodai, or all you can drink, for two and a half hours. Everyone shared lots of laughs, stories and fun. Great night!
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