The Day I met Kim Jong-Il

Irwin arrived yesterday! Which made me feel a hundred times better about being here. I waited for like an hour for his bus to arrive, and even the bus guy was like maybe you should wait inside because you never know how the traffic's going to be, so I went in and out a bunch but I was there when the bus came and Irwin came out!
So cute!!!

So our plan for the evening was to meet up with several friends of Kayoko's who happen to live in Tokyo. I had chatted with Yoko Kumano several times, and I felt particularly psyched to meet her because we had so many things in common, being bi-lingual, bi-cultural, Northern California etc. Except she was now living and working in Tokyo, which I just can't imagine doing with any reality. We were to meet her at Shinjuku station, at the South Gate in front of the flower shop, and when we got there at the appointed time, there were a billion people there. Irwin was like, what does Yoko look like? And I was like, hmmmm, actually the only real photo of her that I remembered clearly was this one, in which, as she herself claims, she looks just like Kim Jong-Il.So for a while, I was trying to find Kim Jong-Il in the swarming crowd at Shinjuku. Well, then this super cute girl came up to us and was like, hey guys, so glad you found the place. I was shocked, because she didn't look at all like what I was waiting for. ha ha.
We went out to sushi at Sakurajosui, with Jade Yang, another friend of Kayo's, and her friend Saskia, both of whom had just completed an internship with a huge architecture firm in Tokyo and were about to embark on a few weeks of travel, site-seeing and visiting family history.
Washi, Yoko's bf met us at the sushi place. We ate SO MUCH food -- which I'm sure you can read more about on umamimart in a few days. The appetizers were amazing, especially the ankimo (monkfish liver). When the sushi started coming out, though, I started to feel so full that I was seriously afraid that I might throw up. I couldn't believe it, actually, because usually I can eat like a horse, but somehow I had hit my limit while everyone else was still going strong. I managed to drink some green tea and make that extra room for uni (sea urchin) and amaebi (sweet raw shrimp), but that was it.
But the most awesome part was just hanging out with friends in Tokyo. Even though we were meeting each other for the first time essentially, the feeling was so warm and open, it was so so great. I think a testament to how awesome Kayoko is and how other awesome people gravitate towards her.

After sushi we walked to a beer garden nearby. We had another drink and goofed around, then caught the last train back to Shinjuku.
This morning Irwin and I went to Takashimaya and did a little shopping. We had lunch at a pasta place in the top floor restaurant park, but Irwin a few minutes after leaving the restaurant had to go to the bathroom and he didn't come out for like 30 minutes. When he finally did come out, he was sweaty and pale and dizzy. We think it was food-poisoning -- his pasta had a raw egg on top. We cabbed back to the hotel. I encouraged him to try to throw up, but he didn't. I gave him some liquids and now he's resting. Hopefully he'll feel better in a few hours and we can go out to visit my brother and his family.