Happenstance

today was the first time in a long time where i had to work but didn't have any classes to teach. for some of the other teachers here, this happens quite often and we spend the day in the office preparing our lesson materials when this happens. today is the third time in the eight months i have been with the company where i get to do this. usually i'm covering at another teacher's school in lieu of having an office day so the only prep time i get occurs before my lesson. i have learned to get quite creative with this time and usually can conjure up some fun things to do on limited materials. but today i'm here at the office and pre-writing this blog entry instead of preparing. ironic. strangely, considering how renowned the japanese are for being tech-savvy, my laptop is the only computer in the entire office, which is the central hub for about 150 employees. one thing about the business environment in japan that drives me insane is the archaic use of the fax machine for nearly all communications. i'm interested to know how many computers the entire company has across japan, because i imagine they only have a few in the head office if our district office is in any way indicative of the whole. i cringe when i hear the starting whir of the fax machine and wonder if that's what trees would sound like if they could scream in agony.

i can't remember if i told this story in one of my notoriously long group emails, but it deserves a recapitulation. for brevity's sake i'll try to tell it quickly. in april i was invited to an outdoor music festival in osaka by my friend kelley. he was staying at his in-law's place that weekend and would be staying in osaka the night before so we agreed to meet there instead of traveling together as we normally would. i was forced to venture into osaka all alone and try to find the festival. for those of you who don't know, osaka is a metropolis with a population of over 25 million people, and is the third largest city in japan after tokyo and nagoya. i was a little worried i wouldn't be able to find kelley and his wife satomi if i flew solo, assuming i was even able to find the correct location of the festival. fortunately the outdoor venue was right outside of a train station so it wasn't too hard to find, though to my chagrin kelley was nowhere to be found for about an hour's time. in that time, while i was wandering around hopelessly foreign and hopelessly alone, i decided to employ my cell phone in hopes that it would help me track down my friend. just as i was about to write the email explaining my position, i heard a familiar voice that i'd not heard in a long time. i looked up to see an equally familiar face and without thinking i waited for her to pass by me and then called out "jen". she stopped, turned, and the colour drained out of her face. i opened up my hands in disbelief and made the same face back at her. it was jen neales, an old classmate and fellow guelph drama program alumus. we both freaked out. i didn't know that she was in osaka and she had no idea that i was even in japan. remember that this is a country of 126 million people. as i was trying to reenact the face i made when i saw her pass by me for her, i turned and made the same face to vicki hambley and corey liston, who had walked up separately behind me. it was the second time i made the face with geniune shock. i was blown away. it's such a small world.

this weekend i am going to have to cancel my japanese lesson because vicki and jen are having their sayonara party on saturday night. corey's still going to be here, thankfully, but it's sad that vicki and jen are both leaving so soon. it was a stroke of amazing luck that i would bump into them in the middle of osaka and i wish i had more time to hang out with them now that i've found them. but they're heading back to canada and i'll have to wait until i return to see them again.

it's nice to know that i have friends stationed all over the world, as my future traveling adventures will require places to sleep along the way. so get out there. i am still looking for people to be living in south america and africa when i set out. any takers?