brief, live update

5:51PM OST (Okayama Standard Time)
So, here I am chilling at an internet cafe in Okayama's omotecho shopping arcade. It's new. It certainly wasn't here while I was a teacher.
Today's project is kind of along those lines though: cataloging those things that are the same, and those things that are gone.
Hunters: gone
Desperado: Still there (not sure if it's in business though)
Belgian waffle place: gone
Maruzen bookstore: still the same
Bukkake Udon (um. seriously, it's food): gone
Radio Momo: can't seem to find it. will look around again

The shopping arcade itself is now prodigiously decorated in preparation for 7/7 day (Tanabata).
cloth banners are hanging from the ceiling, and paper strip 'wishes' are knotted on tree branches.
For some reason, I don't remember Tanabata being such a big deal while I was here.
But the most important difference I guess is the fact that most of the people I knew here are gone.
Hide is in India I hear, and his mom doesn't have his address. Most other people have made their way up to Osaka or Tokyo to live out their natural lives. . .
And Okayama feels. . . quiet.
--
But my last night in Sanya was quite interesting. During the day I popped into Tokyo (not difficult since Sanya-Minami Senju is on the hibiya line, and goes direct to ebisu and roppongi)
and met some former students: Naoko and Hiroko. Pretty funny girls. We spent some time calling up other former students, but no one picked up. Oh well. I may run into some more if I keep wandering the streets.
Then met up with a former colleague now working in Tokyo for food and drinks in Ebisu. Shibuya is starting to feel a bit young for me . . . Later ended up at a 'gaijin bar' where the brits were still angry at their euro2004 loss.
Back at Sanya, I closed out the local bar talking with the manager Nakamura Yuji about Murakami Haruki and Takahashi Gen'ichiro. Pretty cool chap. I think I learned a few things.
One of which was that 'Bison brand vodka' actually exists (freely drunk in the Chinese film 'Suzhou River'). Yuji claims its quite popular.
--
update updated
Hunters is still there. I was just on the wrong block, but that old sign needs a good wipe-down with a damp cloth
Radio Momo is definitely gone. Or at least not where it used to be located. The overpowering Okayama FM (located in the imposing NTT CREDO building) must have sent them to the ropes.
Free wireless internet in the lobby of the Okayama International Center rules, though I'm not sure how much longer they'll let me sit here. Looks about closing time (OST 7:48PM now)