Keeping them memories

Muscle Park Oct 2008, Takeda looked really nervous his first appearance there. Then we started goofing around. He DEFINITELY looked more comfortable after that. I'll get pix organized one day...

Midoriyama, 2007. This pix simply got lost and I recently rediscovered it. I LOL when I saw it because it looks like a typical Japanese couple honeymoon photo, dopey smiles! Just stick Waikiki or Niagara Falls in the back, and we'd be set.

Muscle Park 2006. He looks really young here doesn't he? I beat him at Number Battle, and in the next shot which turned out blurry, he is actually making a sad face while I do the victory pose. Funny thing is all the Sportsman No. 1 guys did it a few weeks later and they averaged 28. 50 as their score. Mine was 37.27 and he did worse. So it looks like the only person I'm capable of beating is a fisherman...

My real life friends think it's cool that I am so many great Internet buddies. I too feel lucky and privileged to know you and have people interested in my blog. My real life friends do know that Reina and her preschool friends went to cheer on their teacher on an obstacle course show called Sasuke. My Internet friends are all people I have met through a Sasuke fan site. This post is really addressed to them.

2007 for year was my Year of Sasuke because it included meeting and interviewing the stars of the show to produce a website of their inspirational stories. While there is mututal fondness from doing the project, since the interviews, I have not really kept in touch with any of them, except very occasionally and casually. I want to emphasis that I DO NOT KEEP IN CONTACT WITH THEM.

Some know that I have been involved with a project sending gifts to Kazuhiko Akiyama. I agreed to it initially because I thought it would be done without personally contacting him but it turned out otherwise. But I try to keep the contact minimal, through short mails on the cell phone, rather than on the phone. It would be lovely to talk to him and get more reactions and fun to just chat, but I make a point of not to do so.

And I did recently surprise them by appearing at Muscle Park where they gave me the royal treatment. I got to chat with them and meet their family and friend but I have not contacted them since, not even sending them the photos of the day which I really should. (Yes, I will blog about that day when I get around to it.)

I think it is reasonable to wonder why I chose not to have more and continual contact with them. The answer is really simple. I think in anyone's life, there is only enough room for so many people in it. If you try to have too many people, relationships dilute. When I care about someone, I really do. If I had been involved in the whole drama about Nagano's appearance in Florida, I would have had an ulcer. These are not people in my inner circle of friends and to know and care too much is not a great place to be in. From a distance, I saw the chaos, then found out about its success. That was a nice place to be.

Earlier this year, Nagano was in the hospital and I did not know about it until he had been dismissed. I called him and scolded him saying since he should have called when bored because I always make him laugh . Then he answered, "I didn't contact you because I knew you were busy. You never contact me when you're on deadline." His words were true. To me, contacting the All-Stars were always just a hobby I'd engage in when I had extra time, like hula dancing. That's not really being the kind of friend I see myself being.

Yet at the same time, at no point were THEY good friends to me either. Some of my Internet friends who have joined my inner circle are the ones who listen to me whine after a hard day and make me laugh until I forget what I was angry about in the first place. All of you reading this blog have honored with your interest in the trivialities of my life that are important to me. You are the people I cherish, the all-stars in my life.