NAGOYA CITY, Japan—I am writing this now at Room 622 of Nishitetsu Inn, a three-star hotel with very austere simple features.
Three steps from the room door and you are in your bed towards your right.
Three more steps and you reach the working table. All of nearly six feet long and 1-3/4 feet wide.
A 14x16-inch TV is on the left side of the table. A house phone at the far end right. A tiny lamp shade in the middle. One socket to plug your laptop.
Underneath the table is a cream swivel chair. Good enough to catch my butt while I do this, starting at 10:09 p.m., Japan time. (It’s 9:09 p.m., PHL time.)
The distance between the table and the matrimonial bed is but one step.
Ah, matrimonial bed they call it down at the concierge. It is much, much shorter and narrower than the king’s bed that I’ve been sharing for years with my beloved back home.
No worries. I’m with her here. No complaints.
We are here for an “apostolic mission” as seniors call it.
Mayo our beloved grandson has been granted an exchange student scholarship program at the Nihon Fushima University here.
A bit of chaperon work for him gave us one good reason to come here—again.
A second time for the missus. Several times for me, including three trips at nearby Toyota City (where the energetic Alfred Beltran is based now) in recent times cutting across my coverage of the biennial Tokyo Motor Show since 1993.
The whole day today saw me, the beloved and the grandson visit the Nagoya Art Museum, a sister gallery of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in Massachusetts. On display at the Nagoya Museum are two originals of Gauguin (Where Are They Headed To?) and Renoir (The Children of Guerney).
Braving the sun and heat that went up almost 40 degrees, we proceeded next to the Nagoya Port Public Aquarium. We watched spectacular stunts of dolphins and Orcas to the applause of wildly cheering locals. Inside large aquariums were, among others, sperm whales, man-eating sharks and giant white whales weighing nearly 1,300 kilos each. Ah, it was a feast to the eyes.
If I bored you with this, my apologies.
The break means so much, especially if it’s for the grandson’s sakes. It’s a timeout that makes you drop everything. No argument. I got whistled out. Flagrant foul 2?