Summer 1988

Summer 1988

What a summer that was - a California dreaming summer.

We would sit outside at the tennis courts listening to the radio and beating each others knees like drums until our thighs were red and sore. And we laughed.*

...

I had previously met Noriko during the Easter holidays when she was still 18 and I was 23. Although I had taught English at the local language school every spring and summer holiday for the last three years, this spring found me waiting at Alexendra's, the Italian restaurant where I had worked on and off for a few years. It was my sister Katie who was teaching at the school at the time who said she wanted me to meet this charming Japanese girl.

Through Noriko, I later met Jeremy and we formed a small group with two other Japanese girls.

I was operating my tennis court and bicycle rental business in the mornings. Sophie, my younger sister would take over here while I taught English from one in the afternoon until seven and then waited at Alexendra's most evenings until after midnight. I was busy but the predominant memory is one of fun and discovery. Every Friday after the school disco, a small group of us would go back to the pavilion where I ran my business and we would party there until the small hours.

...

Jeremy and I were like long lost brothers, perhaps from a previous life. This was the first year I had come across Japanese people and I immediately found them off the wall and interestingly whacky. A few summers before, I had taught a group of Mexican women and had fallen in love with them - this time though it was different.

I started to read about Japanese history and culture and Jeremy and I promised each other that we would make our separate ways over there and find ourselves running along the neon-lit streets of Tokyo.

A little over a year later after huge changes in my life, I did find myself in Tokyo and a few months after that Jeremy also arrived.

Although I had changed university courses before, this was the first major Lifeshift I had embarked upon on my own.

* The song of the summer: Hothouse Flowers; Don't Go - extended promo (1988)