Diarylander
...written on 11.24.01, @ 8:59 p.m.
Saturday Nov 24, 2001
Thursday, Brian and I took the train to Hikone. We had just one class, but after that we had lots of plans. Our class with Ta-kun went well and then I was counting the minutes until I could hear my Hikone Boys singing near the station. I was also excited that I was going to meet Katherine, a fellow Diarylander, for the first time.
I knew she was in Japan, but I didn't realize how close she was, until the other day when she sent me an email after reading my entry about the Hikone Street Musicians. Turned out she was just one train stop away! We made plans to meet wherever the boys were singing or at MacDonald's in case they weren't around.
I was happy that I was getting to share my "discoveries" with Brian and Katherine, but as Brian and I walked around the train station after class, my two young men were nowhere to be heard. Disappointed, we sat in MacDonald's and waited for Katherine.
Katherine showed up with two of her friends from school and we all shook hands. I lamented the fact that the boys weren't about and suggested that we move to bigger quarters that might accomodate our party of six, two of which were vegetarians.
We went across the street and set about slurpping noodles or quaffing chopsticks full of rice in our mouths, as well as chatting about our lives in Japan. I quickly asked Katherine if her diary was a secret and she gave me her meishi (business card) with her website on it, proving that it was otherwise. I really wanted to talk to her more about her diary, but felt I should wait for a more private time.
After dinner, I reconnoitered the station area one last time before giving up on my guitar duo and went back in to tell the gang that the two were definitely a no-show for that evening. Brian and I had to head back to Ogaki to meet John for a Thanksgiving get together that we were going to have there, so Keri, Nate and Katherine walked us to the train station. We all shook hands good-bye with promises to meet up again soon.
I thought it was fun to meet someone that I knew only from her writing. Brian was thrilled to meet people closer to his own age and on the train trip back to Ogaki kept proclaiming that they were all "cool" and "awesome" and that the girls were really pretty.
John came to my place and then Yasuyo showed up and we all piled into her car and went to Denny's for Thanksgiving dinner. There wasn't any turkey on the menu, so I had a Chicken Ceasar salad. Yasuyo had to be back home soon after midnight, so she dropped us off at my place and the boys and I sat around and talked for a little while. We made it an early night as we had plans to meet at the train station to go to Nagoya the next day.
Meeting new friends and spending time with old ones made for a happy Thanksgiving. Hope you had a good one, too.