Tokyo Tidbits

A reunion

Went out to meet some friends last night in Shinjuku. I rarely go to Shinjuku, and I definitely notice a difference from, say, the Shibuya/Ebisu area. I should explore Shinjuku more since there is more of the nitty gritty, homelessness, and Blade Runner-esque modernity. Not as polished as other parts of town which is why it'd be worth knowing more...

Anyway, I came with Tatsuo, who works for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He used to be in charge of a program that provides aid to countries to preserve cultural artifacts. Every 2 years or so, government officials get rotated to another position and now Tatsuo is in charge of trade negotiations for tuna. He's going to San Diego in March for a conference on tuna. Right now, he spends most of his time studying about tuna since this is a new specialization for him.
I think it's great to be rotated like this and experience so much, but it also means that every 2 years, most officials are totally new on the job.
I experienced this when my counter-part at the Ministry of Finance changed. The new person and I had to go over my budget and we both had tons of questions (it was my first time too). Luckily he was very flexible and we both slogged through the details albeit with a lot of head scratching and going through old files...

By the way, I met Tatsuo through my nursery school friend Amy. He met Amy on a train in Tokyo one day and she was the first foreigner he ever spoke to. Amy, being so gentle and patient, and he became close friends. Tatsuo speaks Russian now and spent several years in Moscow as a diplomat. Through his work, he has travelled extensively. We gathered yesterday b/c Tatsuo's friend, Buttchan, is on break from his MBA program in Los Angeles. Amazing people! Little did we know the direction we'd all be taking when we first met over 10 years ago...