Takako

I nearly bumped heads with this Japanese girl as we both tried to read the notices on the board at the International Centre. We were both reading the notices for language exchange partners. I already have a language exchange partner, Yukie, but I generally only see her for about 45 minutes a week which isn't going to improve my Japanese very quickly.
"Are you looking for a language exchange partner?" I asked, feeling like I was stating the obvious. And this is how I met Takako. We arranged to meet in her home town, Tokai, the next day.
On Thursday I took the train and my hangover to Tokai and met Takako at the station. It was blisteringly hot. I had no bright ideas of what to do, and it suited me to go where she wanted to go since I'd never been there. We took the back roads along the coast and wound through small towns down the penninsula while we chatted about ourselves. Takako can talk for Japan. She is only in the country for a few weeks before she goes back to Australia to study again and doesn't want her English to slip while she's in Japan. In the hour-long ride to the restaurant she had in mind, I learned about her family, dog, friends, job plans and everything else she could think of to talk about while I mostly said little and thought longingly of coffee.
The restaurant she'd chosen was near Noma, a popular beach. The restaurant looked over a lighthouse and for a second it made me think of a similar view in Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia. Cool thoughts of Canadian winter on a scorching Japanese summer day. Lunch was huge, one of these great lunch specials that Japan does so well that includes soup, salad, fish, desert and coffee for the price of two beers in Outback. The lighthouse has a high fence around it and has become something of a shrine for couples. You write your names on a padlock and chain the padlock to the fence, and this will supposedly keep you together forever.

After lunch we wandered along the beach and sweated profusely, then headed back to Tokai. Takako took me up to the big Buddha on top of the hill. It has a scary face. On the plus side, it's in the middle of a gorgeous park with - get this - grass! Japan doesn't seem to believe in lawns very much. I wanted to roll down the hill. I plan to come back some afternoon with a book and laze on it.
A mad, action-packed day that took me to places I would never have gone to otherwise. Remember, kids - always talk to strangers.