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幸運
So Monday night I went down to Yoyogi after work, ostensibly to meet up with Doug and Ai and take their computer table, which they had failed to give away on Freecycle due to the fact that people can't seem to understand "Computer table does NOT include computer". I don't exactly need a computer table but figured I could at least take it off their hands and deal with it later (hell, if worse comes to worst it'd just end up with the rest of Sam's furniture here that'll need to be dumped when someone knocks down this house).
I got to their place around 6pm due to the rain. The plan was to wait for some dude who was picking up their bed (from Freecycle or Craigslist or wherever) and to also wait for Hiroki-sempai, a guy from Doug's track club at Sophia University, and then we would all get dinner. (Well, the four of us, not the bed dude, who was going to haul off the bed and disappear.) Ideally, the bed dude was supposed to come there before I arrived even, and Hiroki was coming at 6:30.
Well, Hiroki showed up not too much behind schedule, but the bed dude got lost because there was no navi system on his truck, so he didn't get there until around like 7pm or so, I forget. So in the meantime we basically just hung out in a mostly-empty apartment.
Bed Dude showed up and then hijinks ensued as they all tried to figure out how the hell to actually get the bed out of the apartment and down the narrow staircase. I actually stayed in the apartment during that, which turns out to be a mistake; apparently I should have gotten my camera and filmed them trying to move the damn thing because it was pretty funny. Oh well.
After that we decided to go to dinner. With nothing in mind I said "Let's go to Guts!!"
So we did.
Guts is the all-you-can-eat yakiniku place a few blocks from their apartment. Usually we need to make a reservation a week in advance for Fri/Sat/Sun plans, but Monday was no problem and they seated us right away.
As it turns out, Hiroki-sempai is a huge baseball fan and is from Aichi, so I guess he thought that since I said I liked baseball I liked the MLB so he tried to talk to me about Ichiro, and I'm like "yeah, I lived in Seattle... ah, I see, you like him because he's from Aikodai Meiden?" and he's like "dude, you know that?" and I'm like "well, the MLB is boring as all shit compared to Japanese baseball, but yes, I do know a bit about the baseball here," so we ended up talking about Chunichi for a while, about the various players we've liked over the years.. he has a Hidenori jersey! I sang a line from Hidenori's ouenka (it's one of the better ones) and was like "...but Ochiai hates him, so you never ever see him in games!" And we talked about how in the US, your average fan at the ballpark knows less than zero about the game and the players, yet in Japan your average fan will at least know everyone on the team of the side they're sitting on, if not more. To prove my point I just started asking Hiroki what HS/college various Chunichi players came from, and we were going through a whole bunch of them, even down to Ibata being from the same high school as Rakuten's Iwakuma. And I'm like "Chunichi isn't even my main team!" We ended up talking a bit about high school baseball too, since I'm pretty familiar with the bigger schools in Aichi too (and all my beloved Chukyodai Chukyo boys in Big 6, heh).
So, yeah.
On the way back when we walked past the karaoke place we jokingly suggested going in, and I said "oh that'd rule, for once I'd have someone else to sing Moeyo Dragons with". Hiroki's like "What year? 99?" and I'm like "I usually do 2006 or 2007... Ichiban Ibata, rui ni dete, ni-ban Araki ga hit-and-run... sanban Fukudome..." and he started singing along with me. So then we tried to piece together Moeyo Dragons 99. I'm like "I know yonban Gomez. Um, Rokuban Tatsunami?" "Chigau, GOBAN Tatsunami. Rokuban YAMASAKI." "Takeshi!?!" We had a bit of a stall on whether Fukudome was 2nd and Sekikawa 3rd or vice versa... but, yeah, that was really funny!
Anyway, so the point of me coming was to take the computer desk. Which was in a big red suitcase that I also figured I could use to pack stuff to send back to the US with Mike.
But it was REALLY big and heavy and carrying it on the subway home was not my idea of fun, even though it had wheels... I am just notoriously bad at navigating through the trains and stations when carrying a ton of stuff, I do it when necessary but it always kinda sucks and I feel like everyone is staring at me for taking up so much space. Plus with the rain I wasn't looking forward to lugging it up the hill either.
So half as a joke I said to Hiroki, "Hey, do you want a computer desk?"
After a bit of confusion (he had to understand what I was asking and then Doug and Ai also had to realize I wasn't entirely joking) it turned out that he actually didn't have a desk at all at home! AND he also doesn't own a big suitcase, so when he travels he usually borrows a suitcase from his father! So he actually could use the desk and for a lot longer than I can, most likely, being as he's actually Japanese and all, and not planning to move away from the country in two months.
SO, in the end, I didn't actually take anything at all from Doug and Ai. Hiroki took the suitcase and desk and whatever else was in there.
I ended up riding JR back with Hiroki as far as Ikebukuro, and we talked a little more about baseball and whatever. He said he hopes to go to Seattle someday to see Ichiro, I told him to contact me if he ever does that, but I didn't actually give him my email address or anything because I don't reasonably expect there to be any reason for our paths to cross again while I am still in Japan. (Though, Doug, I told him to contact YOU if he wants to talk to me...)
On the way through the station to transfer to our respective trains to get home, and Hiroki was saying thank you to me again for letting him have the desk and suitcase, despite that honestly, I didn't want it so much as I was taking it to help out my friends, I was trying to think what the right word was in Japanese for this situation. "In English, we say it was fortunate or fortuitous... lucky, I guess..."
"Koun?" he said. 幸運. "Fortunate, I think?"
"What's the spelling of that? Unmei no un, and...?"
"Ko is Shiawase. Happy. Happy destiny."
I dunno, it really was just kind of luck that it worked out for stuff to go to the optimal people for the stuff.
Also, after watching Ai and Doug go through their move, I am not looking forward to moving.
I got to their place around 6pm due to the rain. The plan was to wait for some dude who was picking up their bed (from Freecycle or Craigslist or wherever) and to also wait for Hiroki-sempai, a guy from Doug's track club at Sophia University, and then we would all get dinner. (Well, the four of us, not the bed dude, who was going to haul off the bed and disappear.) Ideally, the bed dude was supposed to come there before I arrived even, and Hiroki was coming at 6:30.
Well, Hiroki showed up not too much behind schedule, but the bed dude got lost because there was no navi system on his truck, so he didn't get there until around like 7pm or so, I forget. So in the meantime we basically just hung out in a mostly-empty apartment.
Bed Dude showed up and then hijinks ensued as they all tried to figure out how the hell to actually get the bed out of the apartment and down the narrow staircase. I actually stayed in the apartment during that, which turns out to be a mistake; apparently I should have gotten my camera and filmed them trying to move the damn thing because it was pretty funny. Oh well.
After that we decided to go to dinner. With nothing in mind I said "Let's go to Guts!!"
So we did.
Guts is the all-you-can-eat yakiniku place a few blocks from their apartment. Usually we need to make a reservation a week in advance for Fri/Sat/Sun plans, but Monday was no problem and they seated us right away.
As it turns out, Hiroki-sempai is a huge baseball fan and is from Aichi, so I guess he thought that since I said I liked baseball I liked the MLB so he tried to talk to me about Ichiro, and I'm like "yeah, I lived in Seattle... ah, I see, you like him because he's from Aikodai Meiden?" and he's like "dude, you know that?" and I'm like "well, the MLB is boring as all shit compared to Japanese baseball, but yes, I do know a bit about the baseball here," so we ended up talking about Chunichi for a while, about the various players we've liked over the years.. he has a Hidenori jersey! I sang a line from Hidenori's ouenka (it's one of the better ones) and was like "...but Ochiai hates him, so you never ever see him in games!" And we talked about how in the US, your average fan at the ballpark knows less than zero about the game and the players, yet in Japan your average fan will at least know everyone on the team of the side they're sitting on, if not more. To prove my point I just started asking Hiroki what HS/college various Chunichi players came from, and we were going through a whole bunch of them, even down to Ibata being from the same high school as Rakuten's Iwakuma. And I'm like "Chunichi isn't even my main team!" We ended up talking a bit about high school baseball too, since I'm pretty familiar with the bigger schools in Aichi too (and all my beloved Chukyodai Chukyo boys in Big 6, heh).
So, yeah.
On the way back when we walked past the karaoke place we jokingly suggested going in, and I said "oh that'd rule, for once I'd have someone else to sing Moeyo Dragons with". Hiroki's like "What year? 99?" and I'm like "I usually do 2006 or 2007... Ichiban Ibata, rui ni dete, ni-ban Araki ga hit-and-run... sanban Fukudome..." and he started singing along with me. So then we tried to piece together Moeyo Dragons 99. I'm like "I know yonban Gomez. Um, Rokuban Tatsunami?" "Chigau, GOBAN Tatsunami. Rokuban YAMASAKI." "Takeshi!?!" We had a bit of a stall on whether Fukudome was 2nd and Sekikawa 3rd or vice versa... but, yeah, that was really funny!
Anyway, so the point of me coming was to take the computer desk. Which was in a big red suitcase that I also figured I could use to pack stuff to send back to the US with Mike.
But it was REALLY big and heavy and carrying it on the subway home was not my idea of fun, even though it had wheels... I am just notoriously bad at navigating through the trains and stations when carrying a ton of stuff, I do it when necessary but it always kinda sucks and I feel like everyone is staring at me for taking up so much space. Plus with the rain I wasn't looking forward to lugging it up the hill either.
So half as a joke I said to Hiroki, "Hey, do you want a computer desk?"
After a bit of confusion (he had to understand what I was asking and then Doug and Ai also had to realize I wasn't entirely joking) it turned out that he actually didn't have a desk at all at home! AND he also doesn't own a big suitcase, so when he travels he usually borrows a suitcase from his father! So he actually could use the desk and for a lot longer than I can, most likely, being as he's actually Japanese and all, and not planning to move away from the country in two months.
SO, in the end, I didn't actually take anything at all from Doug and Ai. Hiroki took the suitcase and desk and whatever else was in there.
I ended up riding JR back with Hiroki as far as Ikebukuro, and we talked a little more about baseball and whatever. He said he hopes to go to Seattle someday to see Ichiro, I told him to contact me if he ever does that, but I didn't actually give him my email address or anything because I don't reasonably expect there to be any reason for our paths to cross again while I am still in Japan. (Though, Doug, I told him to contact YOU if he wants to talk to me...)
On the way through the station to transfer to our respective trains to get home, and Hiroki was saying thank you to me again for letting him have the desk and suitcase, despite that honestly, I didn't want it so much as I was taking it to help out my friends, I was trying to think what the right word was in Japanese for this situation. "In English, we say it was fortunate or fortuitous... lucky, I guess..."
"Koun?" he said. 幸運. "Fortunate, I think?"
"What's the spelling of that? Unmei no un, and...?"
"Ko is Shiawase. Happy. Happy destiny."
I dunno, it really was just kind of luck that it worked out for stuff to go to the optimal people for the stuff.
Also, after watching Ai and Doug go through their move, I am not looking forward to moving.
no subject
ETA: Re: moving, I'm not sure if a lot of it wasn't just me being the worrywart that I am...