As our vacation trip to Japan begins to wind itself down to its end, we
made our way to Tokyo to stay in one of our favourite locations - the
Ikebukuro district. I think that as I have mentioned in previous blogs,
Ikebukuro has to some degree become our home away from home in Tokyo.
We have stayed here on every trip that we have made to Tokyo and it has
become very comfortable and familiar. Ikebukuro is certainly not the
most glamorous and affluent part of the metropolis but it is a very down
to Earth place. It is a bit "rough" in some sense but that is
definitely a relative term - "rough" here in Japan is nothing like what
exists in even smaller North American cities.
We did the usual
walking 'till we drop shopping excursions throughout Ikebukuro and then
took a rest and freshened up for a trip to the very nice Denenchofu
district. Takako, a friend of mine that I met over two years ago in
London, England at an MBA retreat, was gracious enough to invite us over
for supper with a number of her other friends. It took us about an
hour to get to Takako's home and we were not disappointed. This is the
third time that she has had us over and we have thoroughly enjoyed
ourselves each time.
We had met several of Takako's friends on a
couple of our last trips and this time we had the pleasure of meeting
two more. One guest in particular - a fellow named Yannik who is
originally from France - was quite interesting. He is tri-lingual,
fluent in French, English, and Japanese. I was thoroughly impressed. What an inspiration to meet this man who not only obviously put a great
deal of effort into learning languages but made the decision to move
from France and start a new life in Japan.
We had a great meal that Takako prepared and then visited for several hours, talking about all kinds of interesting subjects. What a great privilege it is to have friends and acquaintances like this from around the world. I hope to have the opportunity in the future to visit with these folks again. No doubt we'll reunite at some point in the future for more good food and interesting discussion.
Tomorrow we will complete some final shopping and then prepare ourselves for the long journey home.
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