SF Bay Area Scj'ers - the Three Amigos
James C. Liu
The continuing saga of _real_ s.c.j. Bay Area Fun. Transaction record
for Friday Night/Saturday AM June 4-5, 1993.
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The weather's been really weird in the Bay Area recently. Rain.
Imagine 6 years of drought and then this. But last Friday afternoon was
definitely a hana-kin for the research group. It was the T.H.B. (i.e
thermal hydraulics barbecue). One of the professors in our research
group was throwing a BBQ. But as things would have it, it was an exercise
in high humidity combustion in coarsely porous media and the barbecue
ran late. Because the sponsoring professor had recently been in Japan doing
research and had acquired a liking for karaoke, I volunteered to bring
my special Sony CDP-K1 karaoke CD player to the party and set it up. They
didn't let me get away until I sang two songs. So the BBQ ran even
later.
I was suppose to meet Ken Schwarz (ksch...@netcom.net) at Papa's
Persian cuisine for kabobs at 7:30 pm. I was 20 minutes late. Colm
Gavin (ga...@sj.ate.slb.com) had an Irish business society meeting and
said he _might_ show up later. These guys are pretty diehard karaoke
fans. They'll drive an hour through a thunderstorm to go do karaoke in
Berkeley. Imagine that.
I had skipped lunch and just munched a little at the BBQ to save
room for more food. It was Ken-san no ogori tonight. I managed to score
him a killer deal on a Bridgestone RB-1/7 from Iimura Hiroshi, my friend
and shaacho of Jitensha Studio, a small, exclusive bike shop right next
to the Berkeley campus. I'm planning to build the bike for Ken too, so
it's a pretty fair trade - food for bike service. It's definitely a bike
that even someone like Dave Fox would be proud of.
The kabobs at Papa's Persian cuisine are exquisite. Not many
Asians frequent the place, probably because it's a Persian place and
Persian food is somewhat of an unknown. There's nothing "chotto" about
the serving sizes though. A single shish-kabob platter which includes
grilled meat and veggies on a bed of fragrant saffron seasoned basmati
rice patted with butter can really satisfy even a big guy like myself.
The price-performace is really good. $7.50 for a platter. We usually
order "doogh" - a mint and spice yogurt drink, which is only $2.50 for
a giant carafe. Service is superbe. This is the perfect place to take
the cute Oriental girl tourist who's visiting Berkeley and wants to go
to a small, trendy, but classy cafe but you won't pay an arm and a leg.
Cafe Jun is literally just across the street. Looking out the glass
facade of Papa's I can see Cafe Jun's bright neon logo that beckons
hither from the store front window.
In a previous post, I said that Ken doesn't do anything piece-meal.
It may have given the impression that he's a porker. That couldn't
be farther from the truth. Sure, he likes to eat. But Ken isn't big
or fat like yours truly. He's just got a go-get-'em, kick-shiri, my-
laser-printer-is-faster-than-yours attitude. Except, he's stuck with
a Sparc IPC. Oh well. Komarimashita na!
Anyway,Ken goes for the Chicken Shish kabob and I go for the Chicken
Tos Kabob. Both are great and we both clean up. Colm is missing out.
We're both pretty positive they aren't serving food this good at his Irish
business society meeting. Good to his word, Ken picks up the tab for
dinner. Gochisousama deshita dude! (BTW, Ken paid with his American
Airlines MileagePlus Mastercard...he needs another 9,000 miles or so
to make it to Narita. The new RB-1/7 bike will really help out. Perhaps,
there's something that you want to buy? I'm sure Ken is more than willing
to buy it for you if you re-imburse him. :-))
We head across the street to the beckoning neon lights. Who needs
a maneki neko anyway. The Cafe Jun Logo is plenty fine...and it should
be since I helped design it...In fact the Cafe Jun menus, business cards
and T-shirts all bear the same logo. I'm truly in "my" element here.
The movie "White Men Can't Jump" comes to mind. Ken and Colm have their
"courts" in the southbay. This is my "'hood." And the attitude of the
Japanese is quite similar to the Blacks in the movie. 'Ain't no white
mo-fo's can sing Nihon no karaoke!' I should write a spin-off and call
it "White Men Can't Sing...[Japanese Karaoke]"
The place is deserted for a Friday night. All the nihonjin students
are back in Japan for the summer, but the ones visiting for the summer
haven't arrived. We're in between seasons. Ken and I opt for the counter.
It's actually much nicer than getting a table. It gives us a chance to
talk with Kayoko and Setsuko who are waiting tables tonight. Kayoko is
28ish, maybe 29ish. Single, smiles a lot, speaks fairly good Jinglish,
and turns red if she drinks too much beer. She has nice teeth too.
Setsuko is 36ish. Single. Working 3 jobs. Congenial, but a real
"motherly" kind of person. No kids that I know of. Setsuko is sort of
a mystery. I once met a middle aged, just divorced, bio-sciences
professor at Berkeley who was putting the moves on Setsuko...but I don't
see him much anymore. Setsuko must have given him the Heismann. (visual
onomatopoeia - the Heismann award shows a football player in the
strong-arm running position used to push off would be tacklers)
With only several people in the shop, we get to sing a lot more, and
we're really racking up the song charge at $1 per song. There's a table
of Latinos or Philipinos behind us with two gals and one guy. One of
the gals is a real looker. And she has a beautiful voice. Remarkably,
all the songs everyone is singing are quite mellow. Nothing heavy or
loud. And there are no screaming drunks, which makes for a really
pleasant evening. The guy also has a great voice, Ken tells me, because
I had to go outside and move my car to a free parking spot on the
street. There's an 30something-couple having dinner with a guest who
looks India-jin mitai, and another table with two josei. All-in-all a
real nice evening so far.
Because Colm isn't around, Ken sings "Sweet Memories" with the
assistance of Kayoko who herself, has a beautifully rich voice. Ken
pulls out the 1993, earth-friendly, Bridgestone Bicycle catalogue and we
look over the specs on this years RB-1/7. Yes it's a sweet bike. I ask
Kayoko if she likes to ride bikes. She says yes. This gives me a plan.
We'll have to organize another Tour de S.C.J. and convince Kayoko to
pack some onigiri. Ken asks her which bike she prefers, the RB-1/7 in
red or the RB-1/8 in Yellow. She choses red, which of course is the
right choice in Ken's opinion.
Around 10 pm, when business starts to pick up, Yuka arrives and puts on
an apron and mans the counter. Yuka-chan has a roundish face and crooked
teeth. She isn't the most pretty of gals, but she isn't ugly either. She's
very mature for her youth, and she has an excellent personality. Yuka's not
like the giggling and silly young Japanese gals I've met and I wondered why
for a long time. I once had dinner with her and found out that her family
had experienced some pretty adverse things. I think the adversity made her
grow up a lot faster.
Then it happens. Enter Michiko. Big eyes. Long black, lustrous hair.
Beautiful smile. Slender ankles and shapely, but slim legs. A figureful
torso. She isn't skinny. She isn't fat. She's slim and simply, as Ken
puts it, "Beautiful." Even her name is appropriate. Mi- as in
Utsukushii no mi, Chi- as in wisdom (shiranai no shi with a nichi
underneath) and ko- as in kodomo no ko. Just like the current empress
of Japan. A beautiful, smart girl.
Michiko-san is a josei with the Acura Integra, the rich parents, and
the cush business major cirriculum at Holy Names College, a local private
Catholic University. She's no Catholic school girl, but she could pass
for one. :-) She used to have a major attitude problem. (i.e. she liked
herself...a.k.a. Wa-ga-ma-ma with a capital Wa) But that has changed
dramatically in the last several months because of some great strides in
personal development generated by broken friendships and personal
turmoil and a lot of soul-searching on her part.
"Hisashiburi, Jeimuzu," she says to me, flicking back her long black
hair over her shoulders.
"Hisashiburi. Genki desu ka?" I reply back.
Michiko-san gives me that ever so kawaikute, kanashimi look and says,
"Genki ja nai."
"Ee? Naze? Dou, shitan da?" I ask back.
"My boyfuriendo iz in Jappan, now." she explains.
"Ah, sou..," I mumble. "Sabishisaaaa, Michiko-san, ne? Taihen desu
ne?"
Yepp. I guess it's terrible, that we'll just have to keep her
company while her boyfriend's away in Japan. ;-) Wouldn't want her to
be lonely and abandoned in America now would we?
Ken certainly agrees that Michiko-san isn't hard on the eyes at all.
Her melancholy spirit almost makes a man just want to embrace her and tell
her everything's going to be alright. Around this time, (11pm) more guests
arrive. Colm is one of them. Amazing. He's made it here in 45 minutes
doing 70-75 mph on 880 and managed to score a free parking spot on the
street out back. We re-seat ourselves now at a table instead because
there's no more room at the counter.
Michiko-san moves her seat over on the counter too. But she's sitting
all by her lonesome self now. We conclude that we should invite her
over to our table and since this is my turf and I do know her, it should
be my job. No problem. Michiko joins us at my request. Her favourite
drink is plum wine- spritzers (plum wine and 7-up). I make introductions
to Ken and Colm. Ken offers her his meishi while Colm languishes
without. But they both in gentlemanly fashion, entertain and cheer her up.
The conversation turns to the standard stuff. What everyone does for a
living, where people come from, etc. Ken asks jokingly about the rings
on her fingers and what they mean. While Colm gets her to help him out
with "Diamonds."
Soon it's past midnight and Ken needs to head back to Santa Clara.
Colm is just starting to get into the swing of things and Michiko-san is
very comfortable at our table. I address Michiko as "-san" for some reasons
that date back a while. I'm really surprised that she's matured a lot. I
regret not trying to understand her better a year ago when I had the chance
and she was willing to get to know me. Ken explains to me that there is
definitely a line between being coy and elusive and plain ignoring a girl.
I'd have to agree. It was a tactical error to ignore her advances back
then. But she had a lot of negative selfish attributes at the time, plus
she smoked. But she has since quit, and become a congenial and even more
beautiful person. Her boyfriend is a lucky guy I think. I've met him. Tall,
handsome Japanese dude. He used to date one of Michiko's close friends,
but dumped her and moved on to Michiko. I don't blame the guy. From a
testosterone standpoint, she is definitely a prime female. But the fact
that she gave up her tight group of girlfriends for the guy, whom everyone
thought was a jerk, really cost her a lot in terms of friendship. The
guy isn't worth it, IMHO. The best tear-jerker part about the whole
thing though is that last May, at an ex-girlfriend's birthday party,
Michiko, Yuka, Emiko and another former room-mate all made up and became
friends again after Bruce got Emiko and Michiko to talk with each
other again. (Who are Bruce and Emiko? Oh, fictional characters I'm
sticking into the story for body....:-))
Ken leaves back for the south bay. Since he's treating, I promise to
send him the bill. He has a potluck block party on Saturday...which is
today, since it's now around 12:30am. Ken and I have managed to finish
off quite a few songs. Ken with his Mona Lisa, Sweet Memories, Sayonara
(Off course), and a host of other great 70's easy going hits. Me with
Say Yes, Orion, Your Song, Jonetsu Ni Todokanai, Kessen Wa Kinyoubi,etc.
Colm and I hang out and talk with Michiko. I notice that Kayoko is
off at 12:30 and she's sitting at the counter with another big guy and
talking with him. I'd like to invite her over to take over Ken's place,
But Then I'd have to get both over, and our table doesn't have enough
space. The next table is still occupied by two young gals. We offer
to buy Michiko a couple of drinks because we're putting this on Ken's
tab. She's willing to go along with that!
How quickly time flies, because 2 am comes and goes and Cafe Jun is
officially closed but there's still another 2 + hours of songs queued
up and Seiko, the owner is more than willing to play them out. Yuka
gets off work now and she joins us. She lights up a Camel and takes
a deep drag. We converse and sing a little bit more. Michiko does
Watashi ga Obasan ni Natte Mo, I get Weak (B. Carlisle), Colm does
Mona Lisa again, and I sing Itoshi no Elie.
Next thing we know, it's 3 am. Yuka and Michiko take off. "Jaa,
Mata NEEEE!" Yeah, sure, anytime I think to myself. "Ki o tsukete"
I tell them. We get our check and Colm offers to bank roll this one
with his own United Airlines MileagePlus Gold Card. Looks like Ken's
got competition. And Ken has no knowledge of how much of a tab we ended
up rackin up...and no miles either. We sang almost 30 songs among the
sum total of Ken, Colm, Myself, Michiko, and Yuka. But Seiko ended up
charging for only 21 songs. Ken gets frequent-flyer miles; I get
frequent-singer discounts. ;-)
Colm's got an hour's drive back to Mtn. View, and I've got a 30 minute
cruise back home. On the way out, I ask Kayoko if she needs a ride home,
like Thursday night. Not tonight. The other big guy's going to take her
home. The guy gives me a viscious grin. 'Zannen buddy' the grin indicates.
But I know Kayoko well enough to know she'd prefer a conservative hakase like
myself over the other dude so it's acutally going to be Zannen for him. To
foreshadow my conclusion, she asks me if I'm going to be here Saturday Night.
I tell her nope. Jaa, Mata raishuu. What I don't tell her is that I've got
Japanese TV shows and Star Trek NG on Saturday evenings... Missing those
would Really be Zannen, ne? :-)
Jaa, James
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James C. Liu | 4118 Etcheverry Hall |
Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics Lab | Phone: (510) 642-0421 |
Dept. of Nuclear Engineering | FAX: (510) 643-9685 |
UC Berkeley, CA 94720 | jc...@four-lab4.Berkeley.EDU |
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