Strange Meeting

Well, of all the places I expected to meet and talk to people, Shinjuku, Tokyo seemed the least likely. But I'll get to that.

God this keyboard is bad.

I'm at an internet cafe in Shinjuku, and with the stickiness of this keyboard I seriously dread whatever the last person was doing. There's no History, so, I really have no idea what to think.

After posting yesterday we left Akihabara, took some purikura photos with Masa, which as soon as I get to a scanner, I'll probably do nothing with. We sang karaoke with him, he took us to a diner, and then wouldn't let us dance in Shibuya, as apparently it was too dangerous. A random guy trying to take us to buy ecstasy wasn't much of a case worth fighting, so we returned to Shinjuku, and he, having missed his train home, bought a night at our hotel, getting the room next to ours (despite this hotel having eleven stories). We didn't see him again though, and despite walking around late night Shinjuku, we found no places to dance after he'd gone to bed.

Today, we tried to sleep late but only Emma did, and I lay staring at the ceiling for two hours. But we woke, and sought our own purikura pictures (which are those insane photo booth pictures with colours and stamps and writing), and on the way, I saw a guy who looked like Warren from behind. I told Emma, I called his name, and... it was Warren. We randomly met a guy who we had little idea was actually staying in the same city, let alone the same street in an outer section of Tokyo. I met Warren after this year's birthday party, and he's Kiwako's boyfriend. I didn't meet with Kiwako much, but we were good friends in the times we saw each other, and Warren's a really nice guy. We spoke, and as it turns out he's staying with Hisato, another friend, as Kiwako's gone back to England.

Emma and I found our purikura booth, and we made some memories, and then we met with Mizuki again and took some more photos and sang some more karaoke, as well as trying some Omrice (ref. post on 26th of April), which was in a restaurant on the 13th floor of a huge shopping centre.

We saw a little band (an acoustic guitarist, keyboard player and a singer) performing with a very dodgy amplifier (it kept cutting out the microphone), but despite the technical difficulties, they played beautiful songs, and I bought their CD (as it was only ￥1000). They signed it too. But while they were playing, Chiyo arrived, who I hadn't seen since the first Nabe party, which occurred before this blog started, so I can't ref. it. She was very pleased to see us, and likewise to her, she was much less quiet than when I first met her that one time.

Shortly after that, Qian called, from China, and we talked about her results and how she was actually passed this first year and how she'll be ok. She seems happy and she seems to be getting along fine, and we'll sort her course when she returns.

Three separate people I did not expect to talk to today turned up practically at my feet. Imagine my shock. This really seems like the centre of the world.

We return to Osaka tomorrow, taking the night bus at 7PM from the local station. This means that my holiday is coming to an end. In honesty, I prefer Osaka, it seems friendlier, but I know more people here. I am also eager to return home. Since leaving, thousands of people now reside in our small little house, so I have plenty of friends I am yet to meet. But this is certainly not the last time I will be in Tokyo. Probably not next year, but in the near future.

I must return, and as usual this post is brief, but being short on time and the like has its costs, and in order to enjoy myself I must sacrifice full and rounded daily posts. I'm sure you can understand for the time being. I will spend the next few minutes of my time on here looking at the other blogs I have so neglected.

We'll meet Yayoi again on Tuesday, and hopefully something will happen around Osaka, and I'm sure I'll meet Masaya again before I go, I just need to be sure when. Anywho, speak to you later.