06/21 - Nature's Greatest Green

Everything is gold,

that is a moment you've found

in good company 


Today was a day I'd been looking forward to for a while, because it was the day that my good friend and surrogate brother Cathal would be back in Japan and able to meet up. It was also a day marked on the calendar because of the Japan-Italy rugby game, the last of the summer internationals here. In the morning I met Cathal in Shinjuku and we took a stroll around. I got to introduce him to the pancakes available at Family Mart convenience stores, of which he is as big a fan now as I am. The pancakes come in a sealed package of two. They contain butter and maple syrup inside each pancake, so you don't have to apply anything and so that there is no mess. They may sound weird but they are ingenious and absolutely delicious. After the pancakes and a chat we went into BICQLO, which is a store that is a combination of two of Japan's most common stores, Uniqlo and Bic Camera. It's weird that a clothing store and an electronics store would be combined, not only under one roof but with the floors and items intermingled, but that's Japan for you. Can you imagine The Gap and Staples, or Roots and Futureshop, opening up stores that sell khakis and t-shirts next to televisions? Even that wouldn't be as weird though, as Bic Camera also sells food and has a wine and beer section, just feet from headphones and televisions. The store also has an outdoors section on the top floor where you can buy camping gear and a futsal court on the roof.
(You can read about the ideas and offers of the ridiculous collaboration here.)

After BICQLO we headed to Sendagaya and had a tea on a patio next to the station. We had to meet Clayton there because he was coming to the game with us. While we waited and chatted we noticed some interesting styles walking past. The best was a really really old grandma who was wearing a very plain old lady style matching grey shirt and pants. Paired with the all grey outfit was a pair of stunningly purple nike runners. It was fantastic! We also saw an ancient woman pushing around three dogs. Two in a stroller contraption and one in a tote bag hung on its handles. The dogs all looked desperate to get out and walk around as the woman took painfully slow step after painfully slow step. The people were entertaining and Cathal and I had a great chat ranging from philosophical ideas to nonsensical impersonations of Irish accents.

After we met Clayton we walked over to Prince Chichibu, the rugby stadium. It was busy around as the stadium next door had a baseball game starting at the same time between the Tokyo Yakult Swallows and the Orix Buffaloes. We got into the rugby area and went to purchase some tickets. Right before I asked for some tickets at the ticket window a woman said "Hey are you buying tickets?" I told her I was and she asked if we wanted some free ones. Obviously we did! She gave us two free tickets, so we only had to buy one, which the three of us split the cost of. Then when we got into the stadium we soon realized the seats she gave us were much better than the ones we would have bought. We were in the fourth row. Although one of our tickets wasn't actually in that section there was enough room for us to fit. We probably wouldn't have even been able to get all three of us into that section if it wasn't for the fact we were three white guys with confused looks on our faces as we walked in.

The pre-game action was really cool from our up-close position. A stereotypical Italian opera singer sang the Italian national anthem and a Japanese woman in traditional dress sang the Japanese one. I've never seen two anthems back to back that so accurately reflect the demeanour of their citizens. Two Italian fans higher up in our area belted out their national anthem, one of them with his shirt off. The Japanese fans were typically reserved during theirs. The first half was fantastic, with Japan jumping out to an early lead with a nice try, and surprisingly matching the Italian physicality all over the field.

At halftime, I met up with my friend Mizuki and her friend Saori on the stadium concourse. I brought the two tickets for our section and gave one to each of them so they could get into our section and come sit with us. They thought it was hilarious. Definitely not a very Japanese thing to do, but there were free seats so it really didn't matter. So if you're counting, we got five people into the good section with just two good tickets, both of which were free.

Japan held on in the second half, scrummaging very well to close out the game. It was a pretty remarkable performance since Italy is famous for having a good scrum. With the win Japan headed up the rankings to 10th in the world. Which is really great for them.

After the game we all headed to The Hub in the area so we could watch the NZ-England game. That location of The Hub is very rugby-themed and was packed for the game. I managed to piss off some English fans that were sitting near us with my comments about who I would cheer for over England, which I won't repeat here, but no harm was done. Tim came and met us to watch his beloved All Blacks and we had a great time. It was a nice reprieve from the sun, which was not kind to my exposed arms, to be inside. Also, I'll never complain about an afternoon spent watching two rugby games. The only problem was the day made me wish I could be playing right now.

For the night, Cathal and I went to a couple pubs, but we were pretty tired. The most entertaining thing that happened was we decided to add our table onto the table of a group of Japanese guys. It turned out that they were celebrating thirty years of service for their elementary school teacher, which is a pretty funny thing to celebrate. We learned that in Japan an elementary school advances with his/her students and teaches them for all six years. It's a really cool idea. It's a great situation if you have a good teacher who really cares about their students. Obviously this teacher had made quite an impression. They bought a round of drinks for all of us and we toasted their teacher. After they asked the names of my teachers from elementary school. I listed them all and they decided that Ms. Smart had the best name. Yes I actually had an elementary school teacher named Ms. Smart and she was a fantastic influence in my life. Then we all toasted Ms. Smart. It was fun and hilarious. Some of the guys had good English skills, while others were lacking but tried really hard to speak to us. Only one member of the group said nothing and that's because he was asleep at the end of the table.

Today's poem and title reference Robert Frost's famous poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay". It is talked about in the book I'm reading and I think it nicely sums up how I've lately. I have just one month left and everything is great, but the time here can't last forever, especially the time with great friends like Cathal which is even more fleeting.