Sapporo, Sumo Wrestling and Timing

Thursday's happy hour at a Korean bar and restaurant triggered a long-forgotten memory from my travels. During my junior year of college, I took advantage of a combination of factors to go to Japan. This included: a long winter break, bargain airfare to Tokyo, a Japanese friend living in Tokyo, and an American friend studying abroad in Kyoto, both of whom had invited me to visit.

It was an amazing trip and as I ordered Sapporo at the bar, I remembered sitting in Tokyo waiting for the bullet train to Kyoto. This was around rush hour and there were waiting rooms filled with Japanese business men drinking Sapporo and watching sumo wrestling on TV. It was one of those "You're not in Kansas anymore" moments in life, where our cultural differences were just so cool and authentic and interesting all at the same time.

The other piece that stands out to me about the bullet trains was that they were always exactly on time. If your train was at 6:02 pm and a train arrived at 5:59 pm, that was not your train. The speed with which the trains were boarded and precision with which they left amazed me. It is funny, because juxtaposed with the precision of the bullet trains is the imperfect precision of life. So many opportunities have fallen in my lap that were outside the scope of my plans or the timing I may have anticipated. I guess the lesson learned is that while trains can be perfectly timed, life cannot be. And that's what makes it an adventure!