My Last Day.. So Sad!

i woke up and made it out into daylight around 9am. i grabbed a few rice balls and stopped in an internet cafe to get my bearings and have some coffee. i got through to Nari and planned to meet him by his office around 2pm to get the keys to his place so i could go home and shower and change. in the meantime, i went to Ueno-koen, a large park in tokyo that has a huge selection of museums. i chose the Japan National Museum, and toured its permanent collection which contained many buddhist art (statues mostly), japanese dress, laquerware, samurai armor, swords and scrolls. some really beautiful works of art, and a few gave me more ideas for the new planned tattoo (it's nearing time and i think i've about concluded on the design. wait and see folks). the museum took me a few hours and took a winding walk through the park to see a few temples and a huge pond filled with lotus blossoms (the lotus is a buddhist symbol as the flower grows up from the muck at the bottom of ponds and swamps, and given its stunning beauty, is a symbol of purity). at this point, i was completely done with sightseeing and kind of over taking pictures, so i don't have much documentation from this part of the day.

after a great chinese food lunch (some kind of noddle soup, i don't know, i pointed to it on the menu), i went to Roppongi to amass some Takashi Murakami merchandise - very happy with my purchases. then to see nari for coffee, where i got to catch up a bit and see him for the last time (it was his bday and he had plans to go out to a super nice dinner and spend a night at a hotel/spa to pamper himself - those being outside my interests and monetary capacity, i thanked him and told him we would see each other again soon). despite not seeing nari later, he let me use his place to shower and change and wash and relax, which i did, in spades.

my mother has a good friend here, named Yumiko, who i had contacted when i first got to japan to see if she had some time to meet and chat. we both found that time on tuesday night to do just that. i changed into some of my japanese clothes, and looking quite dapper i headed to tama-plaza where yumiko picked me up, took me to see her home, and then we went out for korean bbq. over grilled tongue, sirloin, ribs, veggies and edamame, we talked about my impressions of japan. she teaches japanese, so throughout she kept dropping new words for me. i am a fairly quick learner with language, and i actually feel decent now about being able to use simple expressions and words here - at least, enough for greetings, exclamations, thank yous, and ordering food and beer. yumiko told me i'm a very interesting person to talk to - i guess that's about right, i had quite a holiday here and there's so much to tell and talk about. she also tried to assuage my concerns about offending all the japanese by the various customs and rules that i might break. for example, japanese are wary of tattoos and tanktops are disrespectful to be worn into restaurants and certainly temples. but, i told yumiko, on hot days when i'm hiking, i would be dying if i weren't in a tanktop, so often i end up going into a restaurant or a temple both in a sleeveless shirt and showing my tattoo. she said that as long as i was conscious of my faux-paus that it was ok. i said that i was happy to be forgiven by her, but to others, who don't know my inner turmoil (somehow stand the heat and offend people, or, sweat myself silly in order to save face) might not have the same opinion. she said she often feels the same in america, e.g., where it is impolite to slurp noodles or drink soup directly from the bowl, and that when she inadvertently does something like that, she feels like the odd one out in the room. that led into conversations about how i felt humbled to be the only white person in a room, and given my height, a very noticeable one at that.

hours later, i said my goodbyes and went back to gaytown to meet carlos miller for a drink! carlos and i met in nyc a year and a half ago. he is a dancer and now is part of a troupe called Trocadero, and has been on tour in japan for 2 months. our paths finally crossed, so after dealing with yet more delayed trains and rain and getting a little lost, i met him at Dragon. also, fun for us, nahik was at the bar (not working, and drunk as a skunk). i was really happy to walk into that bar and have the bartender i had met one night, three weeks earlier, run up to me and give me a hug, AND remember my name. great feeling. i talked with him while waiting for carlos, and then the three of us chatted it up. nahik and carlos are both dancers. we have all lived, or do live, in new york. we all love japan. easy getting along there. i think carlos will head back there tonight, as nahik mentioned he is bartending and, i think, has a little thing for carlos.

saying our goodbyes, carlos and i went over to advocates for a few drinks. nothing too much happening there, we went over to arty farty. the bar wasn't quite happening, but the music was alright and a few people were dancing. we ran into ed, one of the guys from the ny symphony group i had met in osaka. carlos, being a dancer and drag queen, quickly owned that dance floor. we requested songs, drank and danced until the bar closed three hours later. way fun - super way fun. we met this cute japanese, Tetsu, 22, from okinawa, now living in tokyo working for the summer at a clothes store called Soho, who was a dancing fool and had all these moves straight from michael jackson (the hand movements, the side-to-side head bob). terrifically cute. and he was major energizer bunny - did not stop for hours. carlos was fun to watch, jumping on stage to "drag" perform "get me bodied." a blast a blat a blast.

when the bar closed, we weren't quite done. carlos and i invited ed and tetsu to come along. ed was easy, but tetsu wanted to rest until the subways started so he could go home. i told him it was my last night in tokyo, and apparently that worked because he came along with us for another drink at advocates where we chatted about sex and the city (how ridiculous it is that carrie can afford her apartment and clothes and shoes writing a sex column in a tabloid, and how miranda has any time at all, being a partner in a law firm), comics and mormons (trying to explain to tetsu what a mormon is was fun - i saw my biases coming through pretty quick, but i owe nothing to the mormons, so if one more japanese thinks they are a bunch of backwards, over-birthing crazies, well, the better for me). all the bars being closed, we all bought beer from the corner store and went to carlos's hotel (on tour, he stays in hotels, and on this bout in tokyo, he was in his own room at the hilton). more fun times. the music was far more relaxed, but we were drinking, laughing, snapping pictures and having a gay old time until about 7am when we all just kind of passed out. a ridiculously fun way to spend my final night in tokyo. ed is a charming man and tetsu is just the cutest thing around and carlos, well, fantastic to reconnect. haven't seen him in awhile, and maybe it's the want to actually speak english to another gaijin, but my connections with old friends here have been amazing. i couldn't have scripted a better night (well, maybe one thing, but we are too drunk to find ourselves in carnal positions. besides, i have that to look foward to when i get home, becuase there is a sexy boyfriend at home for me ;) ).

i woke up at 10 and quietly said my goodbyes to carlos and made my way out for some breakfast and to nari's. and here i sit, finishing my final blog and thinking "man! this is one of the best three weeks of my life, and i am so thankful for everything that has come my way. i am lucky indeed. i love japan very much and have adored everyone i've had the pleasure to meet. i will miss the country, its food and its people, though i am beginning to look forward to being back in new york. i hope these memories and lessons stay with my always and i hope i return soon."

all my best, and until i'm back in the states, ja mata ne.
(oh! i just got a little choked up!)