Dateline: Fujinomiya, Shizuoka, Japan.
Today I went to this bar where the gaijin who live in this town usually meet. They had said they were going to be there. They were not. I usually don`t go to this bar when I am alone because the bartender is...oh, well, he alternates between being in love with me and telling me how much he hates me. He surely does know his way around a bottle of gin though, so I stayed. It was one of the nights when he was in love with me. It`s become almost easier to deal with the nights when he hates me. At least then I can just walk out.
At some point, the various people in the bar discovered that Senegal beat France in the World Cup opener. This set off a feeling that perhaps things were not in order in the universe.
At about 4 A.M., I left the bar to walk home. I was drunk on gin and the confusion that comes when a man who has repeatedly told you how much he hates you is suddenly repentant and affectionate. I set out for home, a reasonably easy walk under most conditions, and a walk I have successfully completed many times. I staggered about for upwards of an hour. I was so lost I could not, in a sober condition, reconstruct my journey, I am sure. At one point, I looked up and saw a sign that definitively told me I was in the next city. THE NEXT BLOODY CITY.
The sky was rapidly lightening, and my feet hurt. The drunk was not wearing off. I sighed mightily and turned around. Somehow I found my way back to the train station in my own city and got a taxi the rest of the way home. It was already hot and very bright when I fell onto my futon.
When I woke up, my eyes ached, my head ached, my legs ached, my teeth ached. But Senegal won! As I took some aspirin, I thanked whoever might be listening for all the improbable possibilites of life. The unexpected is what I live for, even if it means drunkenly walking to a new city from time to time.