My friend Rick is in Tokyo. He takes a lot of good natured ribbing from his Saskatoon friends about his homeless status. It’s a small mystery and source of much wonder that Rick, although not gainfully employed in the traditional sense, still jets around the globe to exotic locales. His work is all of the contract nature – scouting with Cirque du Soleil (I take credit for that one) and coaching education seminars all over the planet. He is a minimalist in the pure sense of the word. Has only what he needs, eats when the need arises and the opportunity presents and lives within his means entirely. I am immensely proud of him for the way he lives his life and I admit to shamelessly living vicariously through him. I read his blog daily – both the Rickmccharles.com one and his gymnasticscoaching.com site. Both are superb.
As mentioned earlier, Rick is in Tokyo. He is there for the World Gymnastics Championships where he has a media pass and is blogging the event. His Tweets for help in finding accommodation and high tech gadget info have caused me to reminisce about my year in Japan and thus live vicariously through his tweets and blogs.
Many of my friends will remember that in 2001 I was in Japan – living in 5 different cities over the course of the year. As the Chinese Poles and Bungee Coach for the Cirque show Saltimbanco I was one of the lucky ones to take advantage of a sweet contract that would put us in Japan for 14 months (me only 12) earning a lot of money and living an extraordinary adventure.
As I think about Rick in Tokyo, I am transported back to these memories:
- Shopping at Tokyo Hands – a veritable Japanese version of Canadian Tire and MEC.
- Sitting at the Starbucks in Shibuya – just moments from our site – and drinking a miniature latte while overlooking the most intensely busy pedestrian intersection on the planet.
- Walking through the Meiji Shrine – most days I liked to walk to the site and enjoy the green space
- Browsing along Takeshita, across the road from Harajukuuuuuu station. How we all loved to sing that name…
- The Sunday Harajuku “costume party”. All the teens dressed in goth makeup and clothing – what a sight that was.
- Being squashed into the subway cars by uniformed men in white gloves. How they actually got us all in there is still a source of wonder to me.
- Girls tottering along in sky high platform shoes.
- The food! The tiny hamburgers at the fast food joints, the fabulous and inexpensive sushi delivered on the conveyor belts, the tiny version of coffees at Starbucks, Pocari Sweat and C1000 lemon drink from Lawson, sukiyaki Sunday nights, Pocky (which I still buy!), $15 peaches, and the best part of all – the plastic versions of meals displayed in the windows of restaurants.
- Finally, the misuse of the English language causing us much mirth and laughter.
Ah, Japan. I miss it. The safety of the streets at night, knowing if you lost your wallet, it would be returned is something of a distant dream now as I live in Las Vegas.
I miss it and the extraordinary people I spent that year with. Some I have never seen again, and some have become life long friends.
Arigato Gozaimashita Japan

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