My moment of zen

There are too many stories of mine that start off with "so I met this guy..." and I suppose this is another one of them. But each one is a little different from the others, and this one is a story worth writing for me.

It was my last weekend in Kyoto. Wrapping up three years of life in a foreign country, getting ready to move on to the familiar unknown, it's a little bit overwhelming and it definitely calls for a celebration. We hit the nightlife in downtown Kyoto and found ourselves in a basement bar that at first glance held the promise of great salsa music but in fact turned out to be featuring some lousy DJ who was holding a party for all 3 of his friends. The music was awful and way too loud, but we'd paid our cover so felt obligated to at least finish the included drink.

Along came Deki. This one was not afraid of a bunch of white girls. We flirted like there was no tomorrow and when none of us could stand the music anymore, our little gang left to move on to the next place, plus one.

Time has erased the details of how we ended up wandering the streets of Gion, but that we did, and our feet led us through the famous Maruyama Park and into Chion-in Temple. As the sun rose over a hazy gray morning, Deki and I sat in a gazebo talking and laughing and huddling together to try and shut out the cold and the persistent mosquitoes. Music was a topic of conversation, which led to our plugging in to his iPod and singing "Sunday Morning" by Maroon 5 to each other. And what a Sunday morning it was.

Maybe it was cheesy, maybe cliche, but nevermind. There was a perfect moment there, just me and Deki and those Japanese gardens on a Sunday dawn in old Kyoto, it was captured in a photo, but in real life it lasted for hours.

Wombat king

It had to be done. I had to get to Korea before I left Japan. What possibly excuse could I have to not go? It was just a hop-skip-and-a-jump over the puddle known as the Sea of Japan (depending on who you ask) to get Seoul. Cheap to get there, cheap to stay.

As I am a professional procrastinator, it came right down to the wire - one month before leaving Japan to return to the States, I got my tickets and headed off for a 5-day weekend in Seoul.

Not much in the way of plans for this trip - some sightseeing, hanging out, catching up with Andy and meeting his girlfriend, eating some good food, soaking it all up really.

Soaking was about right. I managed to land in Seoul in the height of rainy season, which meant that a moment without wet clothes and puddles was the exception and not the rule for those 5 days.

I checked in to the hostel downtown, that wasn't too far from the big temples of the city, and managed to conjure up a small posse for the trip. Dave and Andrea became my partners in crime as we puddle-jumped, sight-saw, and explored the wonders of Korean street food.

Dave is a little-league baseball coach from Australia who was on his way back from coaching an international series in the Netherlands and decided to build in a stop-over in Seoul. I've met a lot of Aussies, most of whom are a lot of fun, and many of whom are also real wankers, but Dave was luckily the not-a-wanker fun sort. An all-round good guy with a quick sense of humor and a dream of opening his own wombat farm in the Land Down Under someday, he made for a great pal to wile away the long rains and explore the city with.

When I go back to Oz, I'm gonna find me that wombat farm.

Herbal essences

She had her own room in the hostel, a small single that was serving as home until her new job put her up in a proper apartment. Andrea had been in Seoul for about a week, and before I knew it, she was part of the posse with me and Dave.

A sweet girl from Canada, she was studying to get her degree in natural medicine and could point out all the trees in the city with medicinal qualities. There are a lot of ginkgo trees in Seoul.

Looking for an adventure in a far-off place, Andrea decided to pack her bags and head to Seoul to ... what else?... teach English. And there she was, ready to start a new job and new life in a new culture for a year. It all started with that week of rain and that weekend of wandering through the city, our happy band of three. When we needed a break from the rain, we headed for the cinema to watch Pirates of the Caribbean, and when we needed food, I introduced them to the deliciousness that is Korean BBQ. Mmmm....

Wonder where she is now. Still in Korea? Possibly.

Stateside backup

I hopped on a plane to Auckland from Kyoto for a quick 5-day sojourn to celebrate my best mate Claire's wedding and serve as her maid of honour. It was a perfect wedding, small and elegantly simple - the best wedding I've ever been to, actually.

Oddly enough, of the whole wedding group, there were 2 non-Kiwis - me and Andy. This isn't by itself an odd thing, but considering that there were two Americans at the wedding, both in the wedding party, and both of us had flown in to Auckland from East Asia for the wedding, Andy and I had some fun things in common.

Andy is a pretty cool guy who lived in Korea and taught English with his girlfriend (ok, now they're married!) for a long time while really wanting to make pottery. And he's really good at that. We talked about life as an English teacher in Asia and traditional Kyoto pottery, and a few months later when I went to Seoul for a long weekend I had a friendly familiar face to hang out with. So double serving friend he is.