Walking Takamatsu

　　　Yoichiro came to visit today. Originally from Chiba, he has lived in Nagoya, Takamatsu　and Hiroshima. Now he lives in Tokyo. He lived in Takamatsu for nine years. He moved away three　years ago. He visits two or three times a year. After dinner, I asked him to　talk about Takamatsu.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　M(e): What brings you back?
Y(oichiro): My dance group is going to Kouchi. (Yoichiro is a member of a Yosakoi dance group in Takamatsu. He showed me some fancy moves.)
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　M: How is Takamatsu different than other cities? ( He had to think about that for a while.)


Y: There are more bicycles and beauty salons in Takamatsu. There's a lot more udon.
M: Is Takamatsu udon different than the udon in other cities?
Y: It's chewier and the soup is different. And it's cheaper.
M: Tell me a Takamatsu story.
Y: When I first came to Takamatsu, I didn't know anyone. For four months, the only people I met were at work. On weekends, there was nobody to talk to.
One night, my boss took me to a small izakaya. There I met a woman from Canada named Karen. She was very friendly. Karen was an English teacher at Geos. That night I started thinking that I should study English.
So, a few days later I signed up at Geos. Karen wasn't my teacher. My teacher was Marcus, from Ireland. Marcus was also very friendly. One night, after class, he invited me to join him for a beer. We went to a small restaurant in Fukuda Machi. It was called Sea Dragon. Marcus introduced me to some of his friends and they were all very friendly.
I began to go to Sea Dragon every Saturday night. I met so many people. It was like a snowball rolling down a hill. I made many, many new friends, all different types of people　from Japan and from many different countries. I was really happy.
M: Thank you for your time.


I was at Sea Dragon that night 12 years ago. Now, everybody knows Yoichiro.