In Tokyo instead of at school...YAY!

Monday and Tuesday, I was in Tokyo for a meeting because I’ll be doing a workshop for the new teachers coming in early August. I’ll be presenting on life in Japan as a person of African descent. There are a total of 6 of us giving the presentation at the two orientations. I showed up as instructed with my outline ready to discuss. How about the 5 other folks came empty handed and designated me at the note taker. The fact that we had to turn in an outline is the only thing that kept me from saying, “Are you crazy? Take your own notes losers!” So I begrudgingly took notes and looked at them all like they were crazy during the meeting. When asked if I was alright, I replied, “Yes, just waiting for y’all to get to the point.” After our meeting on Monday, a group of us met with the woman who has been over the African Descent special interest group for the program. My intention was to get a list of resources within the country from her but it turned into a casual dinner/regular night out…which I didn’t mind. We ate Mexican food at a restaurant not too far from out hotel…the luxurious KEIO Plaza hotel in Shinjuku…they really know how to put us up!!! Too bad that money doesn’t go into new teacher housing in my prefecture! Anyway, after dinner a woman from Jamaica and I headed out to Roppongi looking for loud music on a Monday night. We got loud music but that’s about it. After scouring the streets for a place where the music was consistently half-decent, we finally ended up in a near empty salsa club/restaurant called Copacabana. There was a kinda-old-looking-relatively-youngish white lady there dancing like it was Spring Break Miami with an OLD Japanese man who looked like he didn’t know what to do…so I danced one song with the cook who was obviously doing nothing because he was standing around bobbing his head and there was no one there anyway. We got back to the hotel a little after 12.

Tuesday, after the meeting that ended at 12, a group of us headed over to Sizzler for lunch. When you hear Sizzler, what do you think of? A greasy buffet line with out of control kids eating directly from the dessert bar or an almost upscale dining establishment with impeccable service and an amazing salad/soup/desert bar? Well, I’m glad to inform you that it was the later. The place was NICE and the food was GOOD! A couple weeks ago, I made an appointment and a spa that has a staff who are knowledgeable about Black people…it’s the only one that seems to exist in the whole country and they are booked solid for months from now. So, I was lucky to even get an appointment when I did. The woman I had gone out with Monday (see me trying to stop refereeing to people my age as “boys” and “girls”) needed her hair trimmed and one of the stylists there said she could fit her in real quick out of the kindness of her heart at the same time as my appointment, which was for 3 pm. Well, as we were leaving the restaurant at about 1:30, she got a phone call from one of her friends in town who she had made lunch plans with but forgot about. So she went to meet him in front of the hotel. She calls me at about 1:45 and says, “Come on, I’ve got someone to drive us to the spa.” So, I made my merry little way back over to the hotel. She asked him how long it would take to get there and he said about 40 minutes so we hop in the car thinking we’re going to the spa. 2:45 rolls around and we’re in Saitama, a suburb of Tokyo. So, I politely remind her that I have somewhere to be at 3. This fool was taking us to his house to eat!!! At that point, I was mad and ready to get out and take the subway back into town. At 3, I called the spa to tell them that we were in traffic and we would be about 15 minutes late. Well, we get about a block from the spa at like 3:35 so I called the spa back to tell them that we’re coming and they tell me, “I’m sorry but we can not take you today.” I WAS HEATED!!! But you know what? Lesson learned...You'd think that by now I would know not to accept rides from strangers...even if it's a friend of a friend when you have an agenda of your own...