A lunch date!

I have known for several months that my friend Deanna has been hanging out in Japan while she is between jobs.

The first night we were here, I was idly unwinding by scrolling through social media and I suddenly realized that Deanna was in Japan.  (She’s normally in California.)

So after a few conversations where we tried to figure out logistics that would work (she was traveling, I was traveling), we realized that she was going to be in Kyoto for one afternoon… and that’s when we would be in Kyoto.

And because Deanna knows everyone, she knows Colin from work, and she’s on Yuri’s Mystery Hunt team, but they’d never actually met.  And then when I asked Kit and Colin, “Hey, you know Deanna, right?” Isaac said “Wait, I think I know Deanna…” (from college.)

Everyone decided to tag along, so Deanna and her partner Noel took all of the Kyoto crew to an okonomiyaki place near the train station.

Okonomiyaki is a dish associated with the Kansai area of Japan (Kyoto, Osaka, etc.).  It's a pancake of egg, cabbage and whatever other filling you want, cooked on the table in front of you.

We had to split into two tables but we got to catch up and learn about Japanese baseball and what it's like to be a white fluent Japanese speaker living in Japan. It was a fun surprise to get to see someone from home-but-not-really on the other side of the world!