Warrior Woman

My girlfriend, Sachiko. It's our six month anniversary in just two weeks. Crazy, right?! I'm going to get her some of those russian dolls that fold into each other, which aparently she had as a child and wishes she could have gotten at this Works of the Hermitage exhibit we went to recently at the prefectural museum here (or to be more accurate, to the Works of the Hermitage exhibit which I recently went to without her...it's a long story and involves a dog, but anyway she's nuts for these dolls and hopefully is secretly hoping that that's what I'm going to get her). So that'll be nice. There is one small hitch in the anniversary plans, which is this: On November 26th, Josh will be here in Matsuyama, in good old Ehime on good old Shikoku, but where will Sachiko be? Sachiko will be in Fukuoka, over on Kyushu, care of our friend Kouji and his generously including her in his company's Mandatory Company Travel event (a staple of the Japanese business model), even though Sachiko isn't a part of his company...not that I don't want her to go or anything (hey, a trip to Fukuoka, right?); it's just that Kouji is one of our more overtly infideletous and vaguely predatory friends of ours, and he's had a thing for Sachiko since small times and I don't entirely trust his motives or anyone else's as far as laying-groundwork-for-when-Josh-is-out-of-the-picture or the feeling that I get when folks are doing that. That happens in about six months, by the way. It's nuts with a capital N! Nuts! Anyway, where will Josh be when Sachiko's in Fukuoka? Right where I always am. Why did Kouji not call or mention this to me at all? Am feeling a bit obtuse about the whole thing? Or jealous? This is not the right choice of words. Well, jealous of the time that I don't get with her, sure, and miffed and more than slightly smug, sure and sure again, but it is what it is. And I've got more time to get my hands on those dolls.