It's Sunday, June 2, 1991. I'm in Kobe-shi (Kobe city) having just finished a conference for the JET (Japan Exchange & Teaching) Programme. I've just broken up with my girlfriend Ashley - two days ago, but spent the day with her yesterday. I have no idea why. This isn't how break-ups are supposed to be, is it?
I'm in a hotel by myself while Ashley spends the night at a Japanese friend's apartment.
I was there last evening - had a good time with her friend's dad drinking beer and sake and just enjoying being around an adult with similar tastes to my own (the beer and sake). Still, there's no room for me at the apartment so I stay at a local hotel.
I'm up at 9AM, and am watching television when I get kicked out of my room at 9:50AM by the cleaning woman saying the Japanese equivalent of "Houeskeeping!"
I wait down in the lobby and am picked up by Ashley and Mayuko.
It's pouring rain outside and the weather seems to fit my piss-poor mood.
We drive to the Shin-Kobe-eki (Kobe Shinkansen/bullet train station) and buy our train tickets back home via a coin vending machine. We're able to set up the tickets, the seats, the date and time and even the type of train car we want in minutes, as the stupid machine is in both English and Japanese. The rest of you are out of luck.
We then eat breakfast, go to a bookstore, take a few photographs and head back over to the train station and say goodbye to Mayuko.
We get on the Shinkansen bullet train and quietly read our books and magazines until we get home to Nishinasuno-eki (Nishinasuno train station). Ashley falls asleep on the train, but unlike in the past, she doesn't feel like sleeping with her head on my shoulder.
Despite us being broken up, that fact bothers me.
Arriving at the station at 7PM (trains are always on time in Japan), I note that our bicycles are still parked at a nearby apartment building - locked of course. For some reason I ask Ashley if she would have dinner with me at CoCo's.
It's still raining - some 500 kilometres away from Kobe. It feels like it's following me, which isn't overly surprising, as I have already developed the nickname of Ame Otoko (Rain Man) because of the wet stuff falling whenever I travel around this country.
We have a quiet, enjoyable time (by that I mean we don't fight). We go our separate ways from the restaurant, and I ride back to my city of Ohtawara, about a 20 minute bike ride to the southeast.
At home, I flip on the television and get out of my wet clothes and into a dry martini.
Actually, I had a Coke... but I have always wanted to say that line since I heard it on a Bugs Bunny cartoon. You can watch it all HERE.
(Of course, this cartoon did do a lot of parodies and stole the line from a couple of movies: SEE?).
I put away my clothes, read some letters and then do a load of laundry. I'm mentally and physically exhausted, so I go to bed early (for me) at midnight.
But, tired as I am, I do not fall asleep.
Something's wrong.
Somewhere awake,
Andrew Joseph
Today's blog title is by Fall Out Boy, and was probably inspired by above quiet day.
QUIET.
PS: After the Kobe earthquake in 1995 when some 5,000 people died, I wonder if Mayuko and her family are okay - and even now, I still wonder. But, according to THIS SITE, it seems like their apartment building would have been okay.
I'm in a hotel by myself while Ashley spends the night at a Japanese friend's apartment.
I was there last evening - had a good time with her friend's dad drinking beer and sake and just enjoying being around an adult with similar tastes to my own (the beer and sake). Still, there's no room for me at the apartment so I stay at a local hotel.
I'm up at 9AM, and am watching television when I get kicked out of my room at 9:50AM by the cleaning woman saying the Japanese equivalent of "Houeskeeping!"
I wait down in the lobby and am picked up by Ashley and Mayuko.
It's pouring rain outside and the weather seems to fit my piss-poor mood.
We drive to the Shin-Kobe-eki (Kobe Shinkansen/bullet train station) and buy our train tickets back home via a coin vending machine. We're able to set up the tickets, the seats, the date and time and even the type of train car we want in minutes, as the stupid machine is in both English and Japanese. The rest of you are out of luck.
We then eat breakfast, go to a bookstore, take a few photographs and head back over to the train station and say goodbye to Mayuko.
We get on the Shinkansen bullet train and quietly read our books and magazines until we get home to Nishinasuno-eki (Nishinasuno train station). Ashley falls asleep on the train, but unlike in the past, she doesn't feel like sleeping with her head on my shoulder.
Despite us being broken up, that fact bothers me.
Arriving at the station at 7PM (trains are always on time in Japan), I note that our bicycles are still parked at a nearby apartment building - locked of course. For some reason I ask Ashley if she would have dinner with me at CoCo's.
It's still raining - some 500 kilometres away from Kobe. It feels like it's following me, which isn't overly surprising, as I have already developed the nickname of Ame Otoko (Rain Man) because of the wet stuff falling whenever I travel around this country.
We have a quiet, enjoyable time (by that I mean we don't fight). We go our separate ways from the restaurant, and I ride back to my city of Ohtawara, about a 20 minute bike ride to the southeast.
At home, I flip on the television and get out of my wet clothes and into a dry martini.
Actually, I had a Coke... but I have always wanted to say that line since I heard it on a Bugs Bunny cartoon. You can watch it all HERE.
(Of course, this cartoon did do a lot of parodies and stole the line from a couple of movies: SEE?).
I put away my clothes, read some letters and then do a load of laundry. I'm mentally and physically exhausted, so I go to bed early (for me) at midnight.
But, tired as I am, I do not fall asleep.
Something's wrong.
Somewhere awake,
Andrew Joseph
Today's blog title is by Fall Out Boy, and was probably inspired by above quiet day.
QUIET.
PS: After the Kobe earthquake in 1995 when some 5,000 people died, I wonder if Mayuko and her family are okay - and even now, I still wonder. But, according to THIS SITE, it seems like their apartment building would have been okay.
