A Sad Farewell

A good friend of ours passed away this weekend. Yuki gave him the nickname "Okinawa-kun" when we met him at a club back in March, and since then he's been a part of our lives... He came to all my parties, and we went camping together twice. We went together to watch my friend's band play a few times, too. Sure, I'd only known him for seven months, but considering the turnover rate of people I know these days, that's pretty good.

Anyway, I got the mail this morning. I couldn't believe it. He was surfing over the weekend in Okinawa, and he was suddenly thrown off his board, lost consciousness, and drowned. Absolutely unexpected. I think that the suddenness of it makes it particularly hard to internalize the fact that he's gone.



He was a wonderful guy. Always together, always kind, always thinking of other people. He was a crazy athlete... he crashed at my place a couple times and I always found him doing crunches or yoga or something when I woke up in the morning. He loved Okinawa, too. He brought his snakeskin shamisen to a few parties and sang the old folksongs of his homeland with pride. And he was a great cook. He made some sort of so-men dish for our hanami. Damn that was good. I don't think I'll ever forget that so-men. I should try to find a recipe.



Needless to say, today wasn't the most productive day at work. I found out this morning, and I spent half the day emailing people to let everyone know. So, so sad... I was sitting there crying at my computer, my thoughts everywhere but on the human-tracking program I'm working on for my robot... fortunately I don't have a pressing deadline at the moment.

Interesting thing, though... he had just finished moving to Tokyo. His company moved him there, and he really didn't seem happy about leaving. So we had a number of goodbye parties for him, and we all got to say our farewells. I imagine it's not so often that you get to say goodbye a friend before they die in an accident. Although it makes the situation no less tragic, in retrospect it is in some small way satisfying to have been able to say goodbye to him.




So I've been pretty philosophical all day, thinking about life... its transitory nature, the importance of valuing your friends while you have them, all the stuff you would probably expect. Also thinking about short-term friendships. Working where I do, I have an unusual proportion of friends whom I have known for less than a year, but yet these people are my closest friends now, and it's hard to reconcile that with growing up in the sticks with the same group of people around me for 17 years... I guess I'm worried that I may take friendships here too lightly, but I've come to the conclusion that really, this is just the way real life is.

I know that's not so coherent. I already wrote it in Japanese on my other blog, so I'm just sort of summarizing it here. And no, the Japanese wasn't any more coherent. :P

Anyway, one last thought, because I need some sleep. Okinawa-kun gave me some photos as a farewell present when he left. So I scanned them in, because I guess they represent some of his memories of us.



Not sure where this one was taken... Savannah?



Nara park, at our flowerless hanami.



Group photo after a party at my apartment.

So, philosophically speaking, which should be more important to me? The photos I took of him, or the photos he took of me? I don't know if there's an answer, but it certainly stirs some interesting thoughts.

And here's one last picture of Okinawa-kun from hanabi this summer:



Many tears were shed throughout Kansai today. We won't forget you, Okinawa-kun.

[Edit: For reference, here's a link to the article (in Japanese) about his accident on MSN Japan]