Osaka and the 2000 yen man

I`m in Osaka. Today I saw the extremely beautiful Osaka castle, originally constructed in the 1580s during the rule of Hideyoshi Toyotomi as he tried to unite the country. Then it was burned down in the 1615 Summer War of Osaka, then they rebuilt it in the 1620s.

Image source and for more info: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4000.html

Toyotomi was pretty interesting. I believe he was a very skilled warrior, but during one battle he decided to practice some Noh plays instead of fight. One time he had a nice tea party for 1000s of people. He had a nice wife named O-ne for many years, also many concubines, but when he was 57 and actually had a son of his own, he had the rest of his family killed...

(...pausing to listen to the guy on the next computer speaking French to his friend. What a pretty sounding language... very interesting after hearing only Japanese for so long...)

... in reading some more history in the castle it was interesting to note the many warriors who committed suicide from shame. Several were listed as having been "late to a battle" and therefore they committed suicide. It puts real depth into the very noticeable practice of always being on time in this society. I had so much fun reading stuff in that castle!

And now for the 2000 yen man. What a weird weird thing. I had to activate my rail pass at Tokyo station was apparently wearing my lost gajin look, because when I entered the rail office and looked around to finally figure out it was a take-a-number-and-wait type place, this pretty-good-English-speaking 60-something-year-old man in a nice business suit changed his seat to make sure I understood where the number machine was and if there was anything else I needed to know...

(...pausing as the French guy is now singing to himself...)

... and as there were many numbers to go we had a nice conversation. He said he learned English 15 years ago from a lady in some situation that I couldn`t quite get, he lived in Tokyo his whole life, he worked in an embassy somewhere, or maybe his friend did, his last name was Koizumi and it was printed on his suit, and he seemed to enjoy pointing out various kanji characters and explaining what they were to me. He also said he could practice English sometimes at a baptist church he went to in Tokyo, so I asked if he was a Christian and he said that he was. Then he wanted to know if there were only Catholics and Protestents in the United States so I tried to fill him in a little bit... overall it was an interesting conversation that lasted for at least 30 minutes until my number was called and I found out I was at the wrong rail office and had to go to a different one. The man offered to show me where it was, and he also did some nice translating for me as I activated my pass. Then I needed to go so I thanked him and gave him one of my cards and told him to go ahead and send an email sometime as that is a Japanese kind of thing to do... but but but but then he asked me for money! I said what? You want some money? Mass confusion in the brain. I asked how much, he said 2000 yen, and I gave it to him. He gave some explanation about needing it for something and thanked me very much as I ran to catch my train and didn`t understand his explanation and was really confused... and I have been confused all day. Christyanne, my travel buddy, said that there is a sort of similar thing that you can encounter in Mexico as people like to help foreigners and then demand money for it and you just ignore them completely because they are easy to identify, but with his nice suit and my recount of our long conversation she was also very confused and we don`t know what was up. My wild midnight imagination wonders if I have just been gullibilized by the expert Japanese mafia.

Anyway, I am smarter now, a little worried about the mafia, and very tired and going to bed. Off to Okinawa in the morning. Sigh. I have just discovered that my puppy boy has an ear infection and I want to go home and hug him. I am such a bad puppy mommy. I abandoned him for so long, what is he thinking?

One last note: the JSPS farewell party was interesting and deserves a blog, but for tonight I will just mention the tactics used to clear the cocktail room at the very punctual end of the party:
1) "The party is over, and we need to close this room."
2) "Please leave the room as soon as possible."
3) "Please scatter like cherry blossoms in the wind."