01 • Gogyohka every day i face the window and open a portal 02 • Katauta and how is your mom i write partly to dilute the color between the lines 03 • Boketto japanese college students drift past the café window clusters crowned with rusty shades of orange in a sea of black no longer alone i remain a stranger today is no different than any other weekday until confronted by platinum hair as i rise to leave no longer alone i remain a stranger walking home i realize her request for translation was how a teenager loose in japan would probably flirt no longer alone i remain a stranger
While in Japan
I made a daily pilgrimage to one of two internet cafés. One was in Umeda, called YahooBB. The other was a Kinko:s1 and cost a lot more, so it was only for days when I couldn’t make it to Umeda, and even then only to check email.
I had a Tripod weblog (remember when they were actually called that?) and Juno email account that never got a single spam email that I can remember. Remember opening your email and getting actual emails? That:s what kept me from feeling completely unknown while I was there.
I often wrote letters to my girlfriend at the time, which were very matter of fact, and to Amy-and-Amy:s-mom, which I read last and responded to first. This is the Amy I:ve been married to for 19 years.
It was important for me to keep everything platonic. Loyalty to my girlfriend, denial (of course – so predictable), and she wasn:t up for more than friendship at the time. Naturally, I included her family in my sentiments. That:s where the katauta2 comes from.
At YahooBB, I would sit at the window whenever possible. I loved people watching while pages were loading. Yes, the internet used to require patience. One of the things I miss about that era. It was always funny to see how the generation gap showed up – mainly in two outward ways.
Bleached hair (orange, because that:s as light as black hair wants to go before it starts falling apart).
Shirts with random English vulgarities on them.
The boketto could use a little background.
Towards the end of my time in Osaka, I was leaving YahooBB when a couple of very tall, stunningly beautiful blonde girls called me over. The taller one, in a Russian accent, asked me to proof her English on an email she was writing. I said it looked right, she thanked me, and I left. From there, I went to the camera store to buy film.
The girls also went to look at camera film. Maybe a coincidence. But I could tell they were young and they weren:t actually looking at the film. So I went home.
The next evening, they were back at YahooBB. This time, the taller one came up to me and introduced herself as Yulia, then asked me for help. She said she was 16 (I guessed probably 15, but tall) and a model from Krasnodov, working in Osaka by herself to send money back home to her mother and younger sister.
She just wanted me to take her home on the train so she could tell her agent she had a date, because he was 26 and trying to get her to sleep with him and she didn:t know what else to do. I agreed and talked about my girlfriend the whole ride there.
At her apartment, she showed me her portfolio and it was full of big names. Sony ads, major sports drink companies, Seiko, and some high-end-looking dresses. There was one where she was wearing a wedding dress and lounging in the snow in a forest and all I could think about was how cold she must have been.
At this point I realized that most of her story was probably the truth. But I still needed to get the heck out of there because 16 (or 15 or 14) year old girls don:t need 23 year old guys hanging around.
After that, I started avoiding YahooBB in the evening. I do wonder about Yulia sometimes. I can only pray that she’s been able to find good work and live in freedom.
When a colon takes the place of an apostrophe in this series, it:s a reference to the : key being in the spot on a Japanese keyboard where the ‘ key would be on an English keyboard.
A katauta is half of a sedoka (a two-part lover:s conversation poem). As only one half of the conversation, it leaves much unsaid.
I like the story that this tells. It is told in simple language. For some reasons, I find it a bit humorous and good read.
like Joseph