One of the pleasures of living near Kichijoji is the prospect of Umezu Kazuo walking past your window on any given day.
"Umezu! UMEZU!" shouted Hiroko, flinging back open the front door only seconds after having stepped out to go shopping. Say no more. Wordlessly I vaulted upstairs for the 1968 edition of his collected works, sprinted back downstairs, out the door, and down the street. She'd spotted him once before, almost two years previous, and this time we were ready.
"Where'd he go?" I asked, frantically looking up and down the streets radiating from the crossing near our house. The last time this happened, he'd vanished without a trace. We'd lost precious seconds getting the book. That's why we'd left it on the edge of the bookshelf for the last two years. No way we were letting him get away this time.
"There!" cried Hiroko. "In the bright red shirt!"
Sure enough, there he was, a good twenty meters down the street. How's he move so FAST? Crouching into a wind sprint, I headed down the thoroughfare, now crowded with midday shoppers.
"Sensei! SENSEI!" Housewives scattering and ducking for cover, a crazed gaijin in a Uniqlo thousand-yen samue buffaloing through their midst. Fifteen meters. Ten. Five. Contact...
"Sensei! Are you Umezu-sensei?" I asked, out of breath.
"Yes?" replied the startled man. Small, almost delicate, in person.
"I'm a big fan. Would you mind signing this?"
"Sure. Who should I make it out to?"
"Matt. 'Matto.'"
"Batto?"
"No, Matto. Like... kuruma-no-matto," I improvised, giving him the word for a car floormat.
"Kuruma no matto! Ha!"
After exchanging pleasantries, we split ways. Just another quiet, everyday encounter with a manga legend. Man, I love this town.
Yeah, I saw him hanging out at that cafe down the block from me once. He's definitely "around."
Posted by: marxy | June 10, 2008 at 12:19 PM
Great score! I wish I could get up the guts when I spot a celeb that way.
Posted by: Mr.Dandy | June 10, 2008 at 03:26 PM
It's the whole gaijin free pass thing, I guess. I don't think I'd have the guts to, say, slide-tackle Stan Lee and demand an autograph if I walked past him on the street in New York.
Posted by: Matt | June 10, 2008 at 03:35 PM
You even got a "-sama" out of the deal too. Congrats.
I wouldn't be too worried about needing to use your "What a weirdo! Oh...he's a foreigner" card either. I would probably go twice as bonkers if I got a chance to meet Takashi Miike.
About a year or two ago I could've sworn that I saw Sonny Chiba coming out of a movie theater while I was waiting for the next movie to show. I wasn't totally sure when I saw him, but I didn't go outside to double check because I for whatever reason couldn't remember his name!
Posted by: Bernie | June 16, 2008 at 11:02 PM