Radio 1, for You: The Viewer

At a Christmas party here in Imabari, shortly before Allison's and Ellie's arrivals and the start of the then-real--yet now quickly fading--Holiday Season, I was sat down talking with a woman named Akiko and my friend Hiroko; Akiko is head honcho (do we think that's translatable into the Japanese?) at the admittedly meager Imabari Interntaional Association and Hiroko is my number one pal at the FM station that graciously and somewhat ludicrously, I have believed, welcomes me to their ranks as a bonafide Disc Jockey with a regular weekly showtime (though sadly, no Podcast). It's true I lack a cool DJ name as of yet, but seeing as how no one here can pronounce my real name anyway, "Josh" probably does me just fine as a top secret alien code word for what is in fact my own birthname; the show is proudly called the Kessel Run, nomenclature derived from the esoteric but memorable line from Star Wars, Han to Luke and Ben: "You haven't heard of the Millenium Falcon? It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs." And, accordingly, my opening tune every week is none other than the music from the Mos Eisley Cantina scene. BA-BA--BA-BA--BA-DA-BAM ... anyway, you remember. The name of the program, it must be noted, is taken with a big thanks to bigsis for the infallible advice back in September: totally her idea, and a great one.

We three, Akiko, Hiroko and I are chatty and having an OK time; the party, not bursting with people, is stacked mostly with the other Imabari gaikokujin that I tend to avoooooooid: wearying, boorish folks, teachers at one of the English language education chain-franchises that are quite successful throughout the country. These, the other foreigners here I kind of disdain, somehow take control of the stereo and they're playing a lot of the not-quite-right-for-the-mood party music on the stereo; it's not a drinky dancy drinky party, boys, it's an eat-too-much-holiday-food/sit-and-act-civilized party, and much as I do genuinely like rap from the early 90's, it wasn't helping me or anyone else to digest their belly full of Nog and Cheesecake and Yakitori.

Apropos, Akiko asks me about music - what kind of music do I like? This, the music question, is always an Ok conversationy topic, and one you can converse in reasonably well reasonably early on in any course of foreign language study (although both Akiko and Hiroko are extraordinarly adept English speakers), and I was all set to try to answer her when Hiroko snaps to life and cuts in:

"Last week on your morning radio show," she asks, excited, "what song did you play at 10:55AM?"

This plot thickens, but it will have to be continued (and probably edited for flow) tomorrow, when, after another long day, I can tell you all about it. But enjoy this teaser, in case there were any desperate fans out there waiting for their kick. To see why I might think so, check for the rest of the story later! NIGHT!