As many of you know, I lost touch with my very first Japanese friend Junkichi over 4 or 5 years ago. The last I had heard he got mugged, beaten in the head while living in a bad neighborhood in Australia somewhere. Jun lived for years in the Ethiopian neighborhood in Seattle where he had at last count at least 2 or 3 people gunned down right in front of his front door. He's kinda weird that way, always likes living on the edge. Of, whatever. So you can imagine how worried I got when I didn't hear from him for like 4.5 years!
Thankfully through our mutual friend and ex-roomate Katsushi I finally tracked him down and have been in email correspondence, he is a reporter living in Manila, Phillipenes. Still doing the Jun thing, tripping around the world, peeking into random dark corners of the globe, always an outsider looking in. He tried moving back to Japan after 8 years or something in the US, but that didn't work for him. I had heard rumors from a friend of a friend that he was indeed in Manila, but even after exhaustive google searches nothing came up at all.
I've been friends with Jun since 1993, and we were roommates for over a year in Seattle. I've met his whole family, and have always really appreciated his friendship. My whole family is very fond of him too and I am very happy to be back in touch.
Viva la Jun! (this picture is from like 2001?)
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