Melted IN Tokyo

It was a hot sweltering evening, and I was speeding across Tokyo to meet Yudai-san for the first time in person. As I arrive at the Sasazuka station five minutes early, I receive a Whatsapp message that he’s on the way and to make sure I wait in a nearby department store with air-conditioning. I quickly find the department store to the right of the station exit hoping that I won’t completely melt away. It is however not meant to be. The covid regulations in Japan stipulate that doors and windows must be always open with air-conditioning on. I manage nevertheless to find a spot near the entrance of a drugstore. I see a shelf selling all sorts of things to cool you down. The one with a Japanese and English sign ‘instant ice’ catches my eye. For the next ten minutes, I contemplate nonsensically on whether I should buy one. Perhaps if I use it, I’ll turn into ice. When his tsukimashita (I have arrived) message pops up, the shelf becomes a distant memory.

We small-talk our way out of the station and when Yudai-san sees me struggling with the heat (and now on my second completely soaked towel I took from my hotel room), suggests that I perhaps take my mask off when outside. I appreciate that. When arranging the meeting earlier in the week, I told him I longed for Japanese food and he said he knew wonderful places in Sasazuka in Tokyo’s Shibuya. The first restaurant he has in mind is closed, but we soon find another one. Food is nothing short of delicious. Over the course of the evening, we bond over food and drink talking about food and drink. This is something I came to appreciate from Yudai’s stage work, especially Khao Khao Club project. Indeed, there is something about food and drink that travels across borders well and unites humans.

As we move to Shimokitazawa, a fashionable town with its many cosy venues popular with musicians and comedians, there is something else that I think oozes out of matcha-based drinks we had in one of the bars there. Our interest in languages. This is again evident in Yudai’s work and one of the reasons why I am personally drawn to his work. We mix Japanese, English, Spanish and throw in a bit of Portuguese for good measure. Along the way, I realise how much my Japanese speaking skills have got rusty since my last visit to Japan over four years ago. I am being understood though and I feel that Yudai has made it easy for me to be able to fall back to English. Still, I want to improve my Japanese so I persist with speaking Japanese as much as I can.

In between moments of conviviality and mixing with locals, I understand how lucky I am to be in Japan when it’s still closed for most people. Above all, I feel privileged to have finally met Yudai in person rather than virtually. It’s only the beginning of a journey, but he showed me the real meaning of omotenashi.

I am melted IN Tokyo and I won’t buy the instant ice spray.