The Last Monday

No one had raised the ante, so my 5-2 off-suit limped its way to the flop. The flop came down 5-2-2. "Check." I remarked, casually, containing my realization that I'd probably just won the game. "100" bet Calgary Joe as he pushed two blue chips into the pot. "Call" answered Adam. Lito folded. Wow. I had flopped a full house and had two big betters. "All in" I announced and, as expected, they both called. It was great. I was all in and could just sit back, let them build up their meagre side-pot, then, slam my cards on the table, triple up my chips, and coast comfortably into a commanding chip lead.

...Then came the turn. I saw Adam's eyes light up as the 9 of spades hit the table and watched his hand jerk towards his chips as he obviously hit the jackpot. He called Joe all in. Shit. I dealt the river, the 6 of diamonds, then we all flipped. Sure enough, Adam flipped over his 9-2 pocket and thus ended my final hand of my final Osaka Poker Night. I leaned back in my chair, downed my beer, and watched as Adam greedily raked back his newfound fortune.

But I'll get back to poker later.

This morning I woke up at... wait. This afternoon, I woke up at 1:30pm to the sound of a woman who had apparently just entered the apartment. "Hello?" she asked. I got up and stumbled to put on pants. "Hello? Is anybody here?"

"Hey! Yeah, I'll be right out!" I shouted. No answer. I burst out of my room to find Kenny, roommate #5, watching a movie in the living room.

"Was there a woman at the door?" I asked.

"No, that was the movie. I'm watching Ju-On (The Grudge)" he remarked, as Sarah Michelle-Gellar sauntered across the screen.



Ugh. He had caught me conversing with the TV again. This happens a lot. I'm like one of those dogs who can't tell the difference between the real doorbell and the doorbell on TV and goes barking and running everytime someone visits a house on Dawson's Creek.

I had a shower, grabbed my notebook and went off to Dotour for my morning bagel sandwich and cafe latte. I stopped at Family Mart on the way to buy a Muji pen and a copy of the Daily Yomiuri. Oh, Sadam Hussein's been sentenced to death, the Taiwanese press has demanded the president resign, Nicaragua's Ortega is looking good in terms of re-election and global warming may be opening up a shipping lane for Canada's Northwest Passage. I love newspapers abroad, so international. I'm catching up on international news here everyday, getting in as much as I can before I go back to the land of headlines such as "Truro Seniors Lobby Against Healthcare Reforms".



Last time I went back to Nova Scotia, I opened the Sunday Daily News to the World page. Apparently, not much had gone on outside of Nova Scotia in the past day, as the World page was split with National. One of the two foreign-related articles involved a New Hamshire cat that had gone crazy and was attacking people. Those poor Americans, they had enough problems with the whole September 11th thing, didn't they?

Back to my day, I walked around, window-shopped for notebooks and cheap clothes, and came back home. Then a couple of hours are missing that I can't remember, but I made it on time to Umeda for my first lesson, 7pm. I taught a delightful man named Toku who dreams of one day going to Canada to fish salmon. After two lessons with him, I came out to the lobby of my school. One of the Japanese staff-members, on my second-last day, was finally putting my picture and profile up on the wall. Excellent. There are still teachers up there who left a year ago, so hopefully my legacy will live on.

Next, I rushed home to change since I would be heading back up north for a private student and poker night. I changed into a new shirt that a wonderful Japanese friend gave me last night at my Sayonara Party and rushed back to the subway station. I text-messaged my student to let him know that I was running ten minutes late. It's interesting... because of the efficient train system, I can forecast exactly how late I'll be be very accurately.

I sat down at Mos Burger for my final private lesson with Kaz. It was very sad, he was one of my prize pupils and this was my last private lesson in Japan. He gave me a Japanese card game and an accompanying book as a sayonara present. They like to give presents, these Japanese. About 15 minutes into the lesson, a Canadian co-worker of mine showed up. I was giving this private student to him. I really like three of my private students (actually, the three who pay me the least per hour) and I want to make sure they're well taken care of after I'm gone.

Next I went to the grocery store to buy melon. While waiting for Lito to pay for his chips, I made a new friend named Akihiro (below).



Next, you know how the poker night ends up. Yes, catastrophic. But things ended happily. I said my goodbyes and managed to borrow a bike to get home. I stopped off for some late-night sushi along the way and took a leisurely ride to the south. When necessary, I ducked onto sidestreets to avoid the police. An exciting life on the run! It's illegal to ride someone else's bike here and the police "randomly" stop people (foreigners) at night-time to check the registration. We need to be kept on our toes or else we will go wild.