I'm all "stay rational" and he's all "bwahaha, oh man, awesome"

Today I met a fellow former philosophy major, and when we parted company I told him to "stay rational"--quite possibly the funniest thing you could say to someone who's studied a lot of philosophy.

This was at a bar where the washrooms were equipped with special puke basins: large, wide brimmed ceramic affairs complete with heavy duty water faucets for afterwards. First time I'd seen such a thing, though apparently they're pretty common in Japanese bars. (I guess we don't frequent that many bars.)

The catalyst for these encounters, among others, is the imminent departure of a former coworker. She's heading back home, which in this case is Brussels. Not that she's Belgian or anything. Actually she's American, but I think she has lived in every city in the entire world. Without exception. Literally.

Life in Japan has an expiry date for almost all gaijin, so if you stick around for a while you inevitably end up going to a lot of sayonara parties. It's kind of like living through the penultimate scene in LOTR--the farewell at the Grey Havens--over and over and over again, except most of the people you hug aren't as whiny as Elijah Wood.

P.S. Episode III was cool. It doesn't open here until July (Japan has the second largest economy and the first stupidest movie release dates in the world), but we managed to get in a super-early sneak preview. I really liked how they did the closing scene--instant flashback to way back whenever it was I saw the first movie.