ON GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS; or, HOW TO DO JUST THAT

there are some eight and a half million people in the 23 wards of tokyo proper, so despite my having been in a place and time not difficult for running into the person in question, i was still surprised to hear my name called from behind me on the street and turn around to see a friend. and then, what, by another chance, i'd made evening plans with a mutual friend who was scheduled to call me within thirty minutes of my chance encounter.

the italian restaurant that minami suggested was full for at least another hour, but we didn't have to look long to find something else, as there's no shortage of izakayas around ikebukuro station (most of them chains, although they still offer better fare than what you'll find in the booming copycat market in the states).

minami works in fashion. she sells clothes for paul smith -- though i think she's officially employed by tobu department store. she wants to take herself elsewhere. in other words, she wants to really work in fashion. kawaji works for a company, a japanese company with offices in ootemachi (literally the big dogs' town) near tokyo station. minami watches "the city" at mtv.com and thinks that she might just have to bet everything on an internship, an internship that she'll probably have to seek outside of japan. kawaji insists that she'll have to work abroad for the rest of her career if she goes that route. they both agree that it's risky, and that she won't have a chance at becoming a salaried employee at any japanese company if she doesn't quit her current job and make a go before she's thirty. (minami has the benefit of five years on both me and kawaji...and, in exemplification of the point at hand, speaks with calculated formality to him but not to me.)

kawaji appeals to my love of books in his arguments against the internet. minami is on uneasy ground in her defense of online content because she doesn't read. i say something about individual responsibility and the failure of japanese education as it pertains to a functional democracy. my origin in a dysfunctional democracy is borne witness to the suspect character of my argument. apparently i used to be more conservative.

minami pulls out her iphone to look up the tpp. i don't bring up that the proliferation of the iphone since i was here last year is entirely the result of a successful ad and price campaign by softbank, the innovative wireless provider here that found a way to popularize apple's smartphone in a country that has had cell phones with internet capability since the turn of the century. "japanese in their twenties don't know how to communicate." "they just communicate differently than their older coworkers." "japan is going to change. it's inevitable." "but that won't happen all of a sudden. the japanese company is too established in its function." "but it has to. the japanese company doesn't have a say."

in any case, best of luck to minami. her impression is that japanese fashion still takes too much from foreign designers. if so, japan should re-protect that industry, tpp agreements or not. it's impossible that there aren't more garments for sale in this city than in any other place in the world, and people are paying top dollar for them, bad economic times or not. unfortunately, the stores in tokyo are selling men fanny packs as something to be worn crosswise over the shoulder, and that needs to be stopped. a purse queen has her dignity. perhaps it's finally time for both america and japan to start thinking outside of the ever increasing standard of living box. designer fanny pack or not, i for one know that a situation in which people throw hundreds around like twenties can't last long.

oof. don't worry about it. i've got the check...