Tonpan no Mi-okori

And speaking of convoluted messes of time and fate that still somehow work out...

I was surprised to hear that Swinebread was going to be coming to Japan. As he said in his own blog, he came because of a family emergency, so there wasn't much time for pleasure-seeking on his part. However, I was even more surprised to hear that he would be heading back to Portland via Narita Airport today (Nov. 18). Narita Airport really isn't far from home for me at all, so it seemed like a unique opportunity for us to meet face-to-face for the first time.

Not that the winds of fate were about to make it easy. (Ha! Ya think?) Today was the last chance I had for a full-scale rehearsal with the Flying Eggheads to prepare for next Saturday's Kashima Seaside Jazz Festival (brassy fanfare, Latin beat). The kids are doing a good job, as always, but they're still not quite at the level needed for a performance of this caliber. They apparently bit off a bit more than they could chew with the tunes they selected this time, so we're really down to the wire. I couldn't simply cancel the rehearsal. However, I could trim it back a bit to give me time to shoot on down to Narita, so that's what I planned to do. Just a little past 11:30 I gave Swinebread a call on my cellphone to let him know I was on my way (cutting him off in conversation a bit abruptly since I was rushed for time...sorry!) and hopped in my (dusty) BLUE RAV4.

Then a wrench got thrown into the works. I got a call on my cellphone from my daughter saying my wife was bringing them my way and would be arriving at Ye Olde Academy soon. Apparently my wife had been called in to do some work at her school, and she had decided not to foist the kids on my sick mother-in-law. Instead, she was dumping them off on me. That meant I had to wait for them. It wasn't a long wait, mind you, but I was well aware Swinebread was on a bit of a tight schedule, so every minute counted. I was thankful when we were finally shooting across Lake Kitaura on the New Jingu Bridge.

Traffic was light, so we were on the expressway in only about five minutes. The drive to the airport went really quickly, too. Getting through the security checkpoint, finding a place to park, and making our way to the departure lobby also went smoothly and quickly. Then I had only to find Swinebread, whom I'd never seen before in his secret identity mode. I made my way to the area near the Northwest Airlines check-in counter, which was where he said he'd be and then started looking around for likely candidates. Sitting on some nearby chairs was a group whose composition matched the description he'd given me, so I moved closer to investigate. That's when I overheard my name being mentioned. Bingo!

(Wouldn't you know it...I'd brought my camera, but since I've never been any kind of shutterbug I never managed to get it out and use it! Oh, well...Swinebread doesn't seem to want his face posted online without a mask on it, so maybe it's for the better.)

We didn't have much time, but we were able to have lunch together, and it was great. It turns out that it's a remarkably small world. He and I both grew up in the same town back home in Oregon. Two of his best friends were cousins of Don Snabulus, which is how they got acquainted. That's how he had come to introduce Don to his sister, and the rest is history! It gets even better. He was at the airport together with his Japanese SO and some relatives of hers who happen to live in Kashima. In fact, the daughter they'd brought with them knew me because she had attended one of my demo lessons for grade school kids!

Speaking of kids, my kids were a bit of a touchy issue, as always. My daughter is generally okay meeting people, but my son, ever the clown in any case, always gets bashful in the face of strangers and becomes even sillier than usual. Sometimes that can be cute, but it can also be embarrassing, especially when my daughter decides to start mothering him. At least she and the daughter of the relatives from Kashima hit it off well...and the drinking glass my son sent flying managed miraculously not to break.

It was a nice visit but sadly short. We had less than an hour before Swinebread had to get into the line to go through the hell of security and immigration, and it went quickly. (Hopefully I didn't monopolize the conversation too much...chronic chatterbox that I am...) I was still happy and grateful to have had the opportunity. We finished lunch, said our goodbyes, and went our separate ways, him on his way to Oregon, his wife and her relatives off to the airport shopping mall, and me and my kids off to...Toys R Us.

Definitely a day well spent, and a wonderful opportunity. If only the reasons for it had been happier. Now hopefully we can meet up again, hopefully also with the Snabulus family back home in green, wet Oregon!

Tomorrow is Monday...