|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..
...
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.
...
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...
....
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.
...
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."
...
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*
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Ignorance is a Blessing v2
|when fiction and realities collide|
We decided to hop into a cab and went to get yakitori on one of the stalls under the railway tracks in Ginza. Nobody was talking while we're on the way as each one of us was too busy playing with our own imagination. I only heard Erick saying something like "Ginza, onegaishimasu" and the driver replied back with pissed off tone as the distance is not that far while there were four of us already inside the car. Anyway..I got swept with my own thinking right away..first, of course, thinking about those hot tebasaki and crispy nankotsu and after I swallowed the thought, my mind back to the wandering of what would happen in just 2 weeks from now..
...
In about 10 minutes, we arrived at that infamous street and as we paid the fare..the oyaji taxi driver said something that I couldn't really catch but surely it felt rude. As I was the last one that got out from the taxi, I really wanted to slam the door but..yeah..the fact that it has automatic door kind of stopping me from doing so. What if the door kicked me back? Haha..oh well..so much hate for a fare of less than 1,500 yen...
...
It wasn't too crowded (with drunken salariman) in the weekend. We got into the "yakitori stall" that located in the middle..kind of a good spot to see others and guessing about what their life stories are like. As I looked around, I saw a table full with familiar faces..wait..aren't they...haha, what a nice surprise! They were the make up artists that helping us during the last event that we organized in Autumn '08. "Heyyyyy..hisashiburi! Minna genki?" Me and the guys stopped by at their table and chatted for a while. I found out that the leader now is doing his own business..running a production house specializing in exporting Japanese pop culture to Asia Pacific. Or something like that.
...
We finished the supper around 2PM and though some ideas of going to club were thrown out, each one of us finally thought that it's better to just go home. Yeah..been crazy crazy days..12-14 hours at office and then continued with another 3-4 hours working on the plan at home..almost everyday for the last 2 months. I guess everyone was actually missing the comfort of their pillows and beds. After saying few "osu"es, we splitted. I took the last cab and as I was sitting on the backseat..I reached for my iphone and checking my inbox. Hmm..junk..junk..junk..wait, hmm..this one looks interesting, let me opened it. "Congratulations, Mr. Thompson, you've just won 1 million USD from our charity sweepstakes!" Fuck..super junk! Then I remembered one email that I received in the morning. I read that email again which ended with "Nick, call me when you have time ne ;)" Hmm..I have time now, should I call her? Hah. Whatever.
..in memory of the times when things were super fast yet feeling so slow..
We decided to hop into a cab and went to get yakitori on one of the stalls under the railway tracks in Ginza. Nobody was talking while we're on the way as each one of us was too busy playing with our own imagination. I only heard Erick saying something like "Ginza, onegaishimasu" and the driver replied back with pissed off tone as the distance is not that far while there were four of us already inside the car. Anyway..I got swept with my own thinking right away..first, of course, thinking about those hot tebasaki and crispy nankotsu and after I swallowed the thought, my mind back to the wandering of what would happen in just 2 weeks from now..
...
In about 10 minutes, we arrived at that infamous street and as we paid the fare..the oyaji taxi driver said something that I couldn't really catch but surely it felt rude. As I was the last one that got out from the taxi, I really wanted to slam the door but..yeah..the fact that it has automatic door kind of stopping me from doing so. What if the door kicked me back? Haha..oh well..so much hate for a fare of less than 1,500 yen...
...
It wasn't too crowded (with drunken salariman) in the weekend. We got into the "yakitori stall" that located in the middle..kind of a good spot to see others and guessing about what their life stories are like. As I looked around, I saw a table full with familiar faces..wait..aren't they...haha, what a nice surprise! They were the make up artists that helping us during the last event that we organized in Autumn '08. "Heyyyyy..hisashiburi! Minna genki?" Me and the guys stopped by at their table and chatted for a while. I found out that the leader now is doing his own business..running a production house specializing in exporting Japanese pop culture to Asia Pacific. Or something like that.
...
We finished the supper around 2PM and though some ideas of going to club were thrown out, each one of us finally thought that it's better to just go home. Yeah..been crazy crazy days..12-14 hours at office and then continued with another 3-4 hours working on the plan at home..almost everyday for the last 2 months. I guess everyone was actually missing the comfort of their pillows and beds. After saying few "osu"es, we splitted. I took the last cab and as I was sitting on the backseat..I reached for my iphone and checking my inbox. Hmm..junk..junk..junk..wait, hmm..this one looks interesting, let me opened it. "Congratulations, Mr. Thompson, you've just won 1 million USD from our charity sweepstakes!" Fuck..super junk! Then I remembered one email that I received in the morning. I read that email again which ended with "Nick, call me when you have time ne ;)" Hmm..I have time now, should I call her? Hah. Whatever.
..in memory of the times when things were super fast yet feeling so slow..
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Ignorance is a Blessing
|when fiction and realities collide|
"So, this is it..I guess we're having a winning plan here. Yeah!" I slammed the proposal to the desk and high fived everyone in the room. Yeah! We just finalized our draft as it was getting closer to the day where we're going to pitch this whole killer idea to some potential investors. Everyone in the team looked very excited and with a mix of Corona smell, Marlboro flavour and some leftover pizza on the dining table..it was just like those old crazy days back in college time. Only this time, it may lead us to a history in making..at least history in each of our lives.
...
It was around 11PM and as we stepped out from Kinkos, Lei got a phone call. He looked very serious but right after he hung up the phone he burst into laughter. "Guys..you won't believe this! In 2 weeks from now, we'll be having dinner with..guess who? Come on..guess guess! We'll have dinner with those VC people from the Valley!" I was about to light up my cigarette when I caught this and I asked Erick with confused face "People who? Which valley???" "Wtf, Nick! Who else! Have you forgotten about the Connection? Zeeee Connection?" When I heard the word...suddenly I feel my face became red..blood pumping fast through my veins for sure and somehow all of us did the shadow punch together rhythmically while shouting "OSU!!!"
...
*to be continued*
"So, this is it..I guess we're having a winning plan here. Yeah!" I slammed the proposal to the desk and high fived everyone in the room. Yeah! We just finalized our draft as it was getting closer to the day where we're going to pitch this whole killer idea to some potential investors. Everyone in the team looked very excited and with a mix of Corona smell, Marlboro flavour and some leftover pizza on the dining table..it was just like those old crazy days back in college time. Only this time, it may lead us to a history in making..at least history in each of our lives.
...
It was around 11PM and as we stepped out from Kinkos, Lei got a phone call. He looked very serious but right after he hung up the phone he burst into laughter. "Guys..you won't believe this! In 2 weeks from now, we'll be having dinner with..guess who? Come on..guess guess! We'll have dinner with those VC people from the Valley!" I was about to light up my cigarette when I caught this and I asked Erick with confused face "People who? Which valley???" "Wtf, Nick! Who else! Have you forgotten about the Connection? Zeeee Connection?" When I heard the word...suddenly I feel my face became red..blood pumping fast through my veins for sure and somehow all of us did the shadow punch together rhythmically while shouting "OSU!!!"
...
*to be continued*
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