Vodka, Mochi and Sakura - part 1

|when fiction and realities collide|

Tokyo, Early Spring 2009

It was a bright Saturday morning. I stopped at Ueno station, got out from the infamous Yamanote line and headed to the park nearby the zoo. Yeah..it's hanami season..a season of sitting under Sakura trees and watching the flowers blooming..while of course having some drinks and foods with friends, families and beloved ones. Which sometimes for some people drinking is what more important than watching those tiny cute pink leaves. They call it "spring nominication"..haha. It's fascinating, isn't it? How people come up with excuses..

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The crowd was a bit different than the usual. This time it's a mixed of Indonesian, Japanese and Russian..girls mostly :-) The hanami was actually organized by Mika..fyi, a GUY not a girl. He's one of the youngest among our la familia that I met about 2 years ago. "Nickyyy...come here pleassse! Can you bring the beers with you too ya..onegaishimasu" I looked back and I saw Nadya, Mika's "girlfriend", was calling me while winking her eyes and gave sign for me to approach her girlfriends. Haha..funny girl. I shouted back "Da da..I'm coming." I grabbed the cooler box and sat down next to them. "Здравствуйте, меня зовут Ник" (hello, my name is nick) I introduced myself to Nadya's friend with my broken Russian..haha. They were actually just arrived in Tokyo about 3 months ago and somehow more fluent in Japanese than in English. Mika saw me and then joined the conversation as well.

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As the sun was getting higher in the sky, I got thirsty. I got up and searched for some drinks in the other cooler box and luckily found the last Smirnoff Ice. Quickly grabbed it as I saw Jamie was spotting it too..haha. "Move bangsaff..haha.." Jamie was a bit pissed as he wasn't that fast in reaching to the box and as usual the word of "phehh" came out from his mouth. I was just laughing and then sat down under the cherry tree while eating a sweet mochi that Akira brought from Fukuoka. I saw Lei was..as usual..trying to trick the crowd with his dices game. Ahh..what a relaxing Saturday morning. When I looked at Mika and Nadya, my mind went back to the very first time I met them 2 years ago. In Niigata...

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Niigata, December 2006

I just finished my onsen treat at Iwamuro onsen (you know..the ghost duck's lodge one) and then decided to have some drinks at Bandai City Area before going back to the hotel. I was actually in Niigata to meet with some of my sources. Yeah..there would be some hot IPOs soon in Russia and some insider information can be found in here..hehe. Amazing, right. We're like thousand miles away from Moscow but let me tell you something, my friends..if you know how to click your mouse, you may find treasure in the least expected place.

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I got into the Immigrant's Cafe bar, across the Bandai's post office and found that my sources already there. We already finished our deal in the morning so the meeting now was actually quite relaxing. As we're talking about some good lodges in Echigo Yuzawa that available for sale, I saw a young guy with 2 blonde girls walking towards us. Then, the guy greeted my source in Russian language and after a while my source introduced me to them. "Hi, I'm Nicholas, nice to meet you." and he said "Hi, Nicholas..I'm Mikhail. Do you mind if we join you?" "Not at all, please. Drinks?" "Thanks, no worries. Sumimasen, 3 vodka tonic kudasai."

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As the night getting older, the cold Niigata air had turned to be a warm vodka smelled air. One of the girls now sitting next to me while Mikhail with the prettier one. Her name is Nadya..a Russian model or at least that's what she told me. Then at one point of time, Mikhail dropped the ashtray from the table and he swored "bangsat!" (bastard).

I paused for some seconds..

"Did you just say "bangsat", Mikhail?" "Yes, why?" "Is that Russian?" "Haha..no, it's Indonesian language. You know?" "Of course I know! I'm an Indonesian!"

Now I saw he looked confused (and drunk too..haha)

"Wtf man..I'm Indonesian too! I used to live there until I was 20 years old! Haha! Stupid me..I thought that you're Japanese from Okinawa..haha" Mikhail was laughing and then he shook my hand and said "Panggil gue Mika, man.." (you can call me Mika). Oh man..it's definitely gonna be a long long vodka night..

*to be continued*