home.
supposed to be about relaxing anyways.
Saturday night (24 January) was the
big event. The Fucked Gaijin / Lost in Translation premiere party. The big names
were there Taro (our host), Rob
Pongi (with dysfunctional camera –
oh, the shame!), Dr. Pongi (his traveling psychiatrist), and a few other FGs.
Mrs. Taro was there as well, and was an exceptional host, putting up with all
the FG silliness.
Taro had whipped up a
huge pot of spicy chili, Mrs. Taro was making sure everybody ate some
vegetables, and the rest of us made general nuisances of ourselves – drinking
margaritas (but that was helpful, since we went through a large quantity of the
strawberries that the Taro family could not have consumed on their own), scaring
the cat and just generally being in the
way.
A good time was had by all. There
were a few technical snafus – Rob’s camera died (or was D.O.A.), his lens
wouldn’t fit my camera, and
somebody
almost killed an iBook. (No, it wasn’t me, nor was it my iBook that had a
near-fatal accident.)
Most importantly,
the technical problems were overcome, and a good portion of the evening ended up
“caught on tape.” For your viewing pleasure (or displeasure – your milage may
vary), I present the FG/LiT
video:
You’ll
need to click over to the “Movies” page with the link at the top, but that image
should give you some indication of what you’re in
for.
The video silliness delayed the
start of the movie, and we almost ended up with another “can people still make
the last train” situation. (I get the feeling those are pretty common in Tokyo.)
Everybody made it out on time, and the margaritas, plum wine (or was it brandy?
I’m not sure. Either way, Mrs. Taro made it and it was awesome.) and obligatory
Suntory whiskey seemed to have had few lingering effects on the
group.
Once everybody was out the door
and off to the train there was the post-party cleanup to attend to, but since
everybody was well-behaved it wasn’t that big of a deal. Once that was finished
it was time to crash.
And that’s how my
last full day in Japan ended. A most excellent way to cap off the
trip.