Timing is everything

These last few weeks I'm in Japan are some of the busiest I've had in a long, long time. And things just got worse. Thursday, I went down to Tokyo to see Hyunjoo, and it was a nice reunion. We walked around Tokyo a bit and just talked and hung out. There are a lot of things I feel about it, but this isn't really the place to write about it, so I won't. I'll just suffice it to say it simultaneously went much better and worse than I expected it too.

While leaving the taco place Hyunjoo and I have now gone to twice in Harajuku (it was actually kind of a bittersweet request that she asked that we could eat there since probably the single thing we've eaten together the most is tacos - i mean, it was our dinner for our one year anniversary last year even), Yuji-ojisan called me to tell me that Aiko-obaachan, who is his mother and my Grandpa's sister, was close to dying. I told them to call me later to tell me what to do, and they later asked that I come over the next day. Well, last night, Shinji let me use his apartment since he usually stays at his girlfriend's place in yet another one of his acts of selflessness that I am really piling up here in Japan - he's just a great guy. This morning, I woke up to a phone call that Aiko had died, which marks the fourth relative to have died since the day I arrived (if you recall, my mom's cousin here died the day I arrived in Japan, who was also Aiko's oldest daughter). It's not emotionally hard because she was 84, but it's just hard to fathom how much the shape of my family has changed since I arrived in Japan - with deaths, births, marriages, and breakups and so much more drama than just those categories can communicate. It's been easily the most turbulent year in my family in the time I've been alive.

So after running by Kinkos to take care of some errands, I went to my uncle's place to take part in the first of the rituals for Aiko's death. Sadly, I'm getting good at Buddhist death rituals now that I've been through so many relatives passing on here. I saw all the extended family that lives in Tokyo, including Sachiyo, who in the one moment of happiness this past few days got me two tickets to go watch "Waratte ii tomo", this really famous daytime variety show, be taped in June. It's really hard to get tickets (she seems to work for the show or the station) and I'm pretty excited about it because some huge celebrities appear on it regularly. It was so incredibly nice of her to do that since we're not really close or anything.

Anyway, I had to come back to Sendai tonight because my Japanese mom here (Teruko) has been planning to take me to an onsen in Tohoku for over a month now, so I couldn't cancel on her. So I have to come back for this and then leave immediately afterward for Tokyo again for the funeral (as a sidenote, I had my family take home all my formal clothes because I didn't figure I'd need it anymore, so my mom had to overnight fedex it all back again. dOh) and then come back to Sendai again immediately afterward for another event with the dance group that I promised I'd attend. Then Tuesday I'm hosting a taco party here in my apartment for my friends. When am I going to finish all my work??

In another bout of bad timing, I had asked Eriko to go out tonight and she told me she was feeling sick. But then around 3 PM she sent me an email saying she felt better so let's hang out; but for some reason I didn't get the mail til a little after 9 PM and by then it was too late!! DAAMMNNN.

I better get some work done at this onsen. I have to.