Today I met James Skinner, an old high school buddy who reminded me that we met at OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) summer camp when we were in third grade. We’ve known each other forever and he’s done quite well for himself. His story is his story, so I’ll just say I think he’s got a whole big pile of money (he managed a hedge fund for a few years) and he’s met the Emperor of Japan. I haven’t seen him since high school so we had a lot to talk about. I could tell he’s still the guy I remember from high school but his huge run of success has sharpened his focus. He doesn’t have the conversational ADD that I have. Plus, listening to his stories (and where we were having lunch) were making me a little nervous.

I can’t remember what I did this morning besides updating yesterday’s blog entry with descriptions. I was meeting Jim at the Roppongi Grand Hyatt and I knew I’d better dress better than I usually do. I put on a real shirt (the one I usually bring to Japan “just in case” but have never needed until this trip) and headed for Roppongi.

I had the porcini salad for lunch. It was tasty. It was certainly better than the Calorie Mate and vending machine tea I usually have while I’m walking all over the place.

We spent two hours catching up and he’s got great stories of what he’s been doing since high school. He lives somewhere I can’t remember near Roppongi and in Singapore.

I tried walking around the Roppongi area but I started to get the feeling that these weren’t normal rich people. These were people with more money than I can imagine, which is pretty easy because I can’t imagine a whole lot of money. At least not money of mine. Anyway, I started getting nervous and just got the heck out of dodge. The only picture I took is of the Tokyo Tower. I was afraid that if I annoyed the wrong person that they’d just disappear me.

Jim was telling me that he generally only eats vegetable juice and protein shakes and we talked about the paleo diet for a while. That just made me hungry for cake so I tried the place across the street from the hotel. The cake was tasty but the coffee was kind of nasty. Not that I wouldn’t go back, but the clientele seemed kind of coarse. Coarse I can deal with.

I spent a bunch of the afternoon paying bills and still was feeling weird about some of the events of the week (the cop, Roppongi, etc). I also didn’t do much walking today so I decided to walk to Fatz’s Burger which is a little over an hour away.

It’s starting to get dark early but it was still humid and fairly warm. But a walk is a walk and I found out that my cameras actually took pictures in the dark. Like this one of “Hair Salon Jedi”.

Of course I got lost again and I went walking through the neighborhoods. At least some of the streets were straight and easy to follow.

Here’s a picture of a Tokyo street near Koenji, Kannaana Dori.

It was an interesting walk and I made it to Fatz’s and took the worst picture of the day of a tasty burger. Even the Costco IPA was pretty good. And I talked the owner’s ear off while he was trying to watch a rebroadcast of an NFL football game.

Tomorrow I’m having dinner with my cousin’s kids. That should be fun, too.