Items from the Past: April 1992

April 11, 1992

It was an interesting banquet, thrown in Polen’s and my honor, only Polen didn’t show, so I was all that stood between most of the staff of Sumitomo Tube Technos and just another night out drinking themselves silly. The food was pretty good, and I’ve mastered the art of appearing to drink more than I really do, a necessary skill in the social life of this country. Those who don’t master it often leave the messes on sidewalks or subway platform, a salaryman’s hanko we call it, which somehow always includes cubed carrots.

Easter 1992

Yesterday I did hanami along with much of the rest of the population of Osaka, along the banks of the Tosabori River, which for eye appeal and cleanliness is like the Houston Ship Channel, writ small. The place for hanami, however, on the grounds of the Japanese national mint, is actually far enough from that river to be pleasant.

Hanami is flower viewing. Could involve any flowering trees, but it especially refers to cherry blossoms, which are in bloom at the moment. At the mint grounds on Saturday there seemed to be an endless array of delicate pink and white flowers, and equally endless people to look at and photograph them. Being in that human stream was like being small fry in a board estuary. No decisions to make, just drift along.