Old Schools, Old Teachers and Old Friends - 18 Oct

This morning Jun had some singing lessons here at the house, so the kids and I made ourselves scarce. We visited Mari, to check on the lost kitten, now named Mako-chan, send a couple of emails and once again, ended up playing Blackjack. After all the hands we’d played, Mari still hadn’t won one, so we decided that she should be banker, though she kept saying she wouldn’t know what to do. Of course, she got the hang of it in the end, and since the bank always wins she was very happy.

Later that afternoon I had arranged for the kids and I to have a tour of Seikei with John Millen. The noticeable differences since the last time we were her about 3 years ago, were the new sports grounds, absolutely beautiful (when I was a student here, the sports ground was dirt/mud) and the two new buildings. The junior high building is gorgeous, beautiful wooden floors and orange walls, with classrooms coming off a large central meeting area on each floor. In contrast, the senior high school is sterile, white walls and white lino tiles, and traditional long hallways with classes coming off it.

As we were leaving, we bumped into the teacher in charge of the Kendo club at Seikei. He said that the club was training at the moment in the hall and we were welcome to go have a look. With the ‘official tour’ over, John left us to assist one of his students and we walked over to the ‘oh, too familiar’ cold and stark hall. How I remember the many hours spent in their either sweltering in summer or feeling like my toes were about to snap off in winter, on the next move I made. I can still remember the faces of some of the people I did Kendo there with and at the end of training when they took of their ‘men’ or helmets, I almost expected to see one of them. Of course was disappointed and as we walked away, I wondered how they all are now and if they’re still doing Kendo….

Later we were having dinner at Keiko’s and we arranged to call her from the 7-11 near her house and she would pop down and guide us back to her apartment. We’d been invited there 3 years ago, but all Japanese apartment blocks look the same to us, so there was no way we’d find our own way there. Just an aside, the elevator only stops on every second floor of the building, so if you live on 3, 5, or 7, you need to get out and walk up the stairs to your floor. Very strange and inconvenient, especially if you’re moving or carrying heavy stuff home.

After we called Keiko we saw Nobuko walking down the street towards us, assuming she’d been sent to show us the way, only to find that she was coming home from school herself (6.00pm) and so we followed her anyway. Then on the way we ‘bumped into’ John, thinking ‘Wow, didn’t think he lived near here’. Only to find out that Keiko had later invited John to dinner and sent him to guide us!

Dinner was lovely and we chatted the night away. Realising it was about 11pm, we left with John for the 15 min walk home. John accompanied us walking his bike, and as he left for the 5 min ride home to his place, we arranged to have lunch next Sunday with him and his partner Sayuri. Thankfully tomorrow was going to be a quiet day catching up with our good friend Mrs Yoshida, who lived next to us in our apartment here in Tokyo all those years ago. Her husband drove us to hospital the night my waters broke and she was the first person to bath Zoe and babysit her. So we have quite a special bond, and on top of that, she’s just a very relaxed and down to earth person, who we love spending time with.