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A bizarre moment on Friday evening found Stumpy and me both working in the same building at the same time, 1 floor apart in downtown Tokyo. How weird is that?
After a bite to eat, he dragged me kicking and screaming (honest, he did ) back to Geronimo's Shot Bar. Where, despite some very persuasive attempts to get me to drink more alcohol I managed to survive a second Friday evening with him. I think my saving grace was his attempt to get me to drink a "Canadian Caesar", it was just so repulsive that it put me off ingesting anything else for the rest of the night. Honestly, I can't think of the appropriate words to describe how bad it tasted, nor print the few inappropriate words that I can think of, sorry Michael, but urrrghhhhhh.......(shudders)
After that, it was water all night!
We had another good old chin wag about Aikido, and he told me a top secret bit of info regarding the senshusei course, but has threatened to come to England and burn me out if I reveal the details here.................................... so if you really want to know, go to www.senhuseisecret.com where some anonymous person has posted the details ................................................................................ ...nuh huh, you didn't really think I'd do that did you?
I eventually forced myself to leave the bar around 11:30PM. Standing on the platform at Roppongi, I had a second bizarre moment for that day. Waiting for the train to come (that Oedo line is bloody slow!) I recognized a face walking towards me "Ishii san?" I ask, "huh? eh! Buraian san?" says an astonished Ishii san. We last met over 5 years ago when we were both working for a Japanese Securities house in London! What are the odds of passing by on a Subway station in Tokyo?........
Saturday comes, a dash to pick up a few last minute souvenirs before checking out at 11:30AM and heading off to the Airport..
No real major traumas enroute, nor on the flight, other than an extremely talkative chap who just didn't stop, on the NEX, and a very nervous looking chap sitting next to me on the plane. His right leg was so jumpy it was making me stressed out just looking. He didn't stop bouncing the whole 8 hour flight, I wasn't sure if it was nerves, or an excess of sugar. I didn't count the Cokes, nor the very large pack of gummy bears, or the large pack of crisps, nor the super big jumbo pack of Juicy Fruit gum, or the large pack of Beef Jerky, all of which were devoured during the flight...........
No hassles at customs, a quick taxi to my hotel and I check in at 10:30AM Saturday morning. How freaky is that? I check in at my next hotel an hour before I left my previous hotel, on the same day. I think I may actually have seen the vortex as we crossed the international date line forcing me to relive Saturday! At the hotel, I go for Saturday lunch, or was it dinner.........................................................Again!
The rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful, dinner in a relatively deserted hotel, with just 4 delightful ladies for company, all in town on a "Mothers of twins" convention. All very large ladies, ordering all low fat dressings on their salads, but with "blue cheese" on the side..........................!
I ended up watching TV movies for most of Sunday, my only observations limited to the TV channel that kept interrupting the movie with warnings to inform you that parental discretion was required for the disturbing scenes coming,or, breaking the movie to show you how a particular special effect was completed before resuming the film, or the continual adverts for allergies and asthma. Where they paint pretty pictures of life, tell you what their medicine their medicine can cure for you, before adding a swift disclaimer at the end......
"...........side effects are generally mild and may include headaches, nausea, nosebleeds and sore throats!" Remind me again why I would bother to take this medicine to cure my allergy, when all it does it replace it with a load of chemically driven ones..........
Eventually manage a couple of four hours of sleep before waking up about 4AM and remaining awake..........................bloody jet lag!
Made it to work but am struggling big time to stay awake. Eye lids feel like they are made from sand paper, and weigh two tons. Can't...........keep.............my...........eyes..........open!!!!
Regretfully, I have just e-mailed George Ledyard to inform him that I'm not going to make it this evening. Even if I did go, I'd be sleep walking on the mat, the jetlag has just totally shagged me, but what do you expect doing three timezones in 1 week..................................... I just hope I don't have to relive Saturday ever again!!!
10-03-2005 05:51 PM 
) back to Geronimo's Shot Bar. Where, despite some very persuasive attempts to get me to drink more alcohol 
I managed to survive a second Friday evening with him. I think my saving grace was his attempt to get me to drink a "Canadian Caesar", it was just so repulsive that it put me off ingesting anything else for the rest of the night. Honestly, I can't think of the appropriate words to describe how bad it tasted, nor print the few inappropriate words that I can think of, sorry Michael, but urrrghhhhhh.......(shudders)