Old Friends on the Summer Solstic

Yesterday, I met some old friends for the first time in a long while.

Gou, with whom I used to talk about dreams in London in my twenties.

And Ueda, a charismatic hair stylist whom I met through Gou.

The three of us had drinks in Gaienmae.

Though I was driving, so mine were non-alcoholic.

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Ever since Gou introduced me to Ueda, I have had him cut my hair every month.

We have known each other for a long time.

Even so, the three of us have almost never had the chance to sit down and talk together.

It may have been about twenty years.

Once, in my thirties, Ueda and I happened to be in London at the same time, and I remember the three of us drinking together there.

That was the last time we were all together — until yesterday.

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Gou is the kind of friend I traveled to Turkey with, and who would let me stay at his place whenever I went to London.

He came to London after achieving success as a hair stylist in Osaka.

That was around the time we met.

After that, I returned to Japan, became a photographer, ran an online English conversation school, and now I run Karada Naoru.

Gou went on to succeed in London as a hair artist, and then, eight years ago, shifted into being an artist.

Now he makes eyewear using washi paper.

Three people, three completely different lives.

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The most stable one among us is Ueda.

Gou, too, could have had any number of stable paths if he had simply continued the success he had built in London.

But he did not choose that path.

And I myself am very far from stability.

Even now, I do not know what kind of life I will be living next month.

It is not so much that I wanted to live this way.

It is more that this is where I ended up.

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For some reason, I now live in the countryside of Chiba.

In a huge nine-room house with a vegetable garden, together with my wife and father-in-law.

Until just a year ago, I was living in a comfortable apartment in Nakameguro.

Life is unpredictable.

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As the three of us talked, there was one thing we all agreed on.

Japan is truly an amazing country.

Ueda, who used to go to Hawaii every year.

Gou, who has visited resorts all over the world.

And me, who has traveled to more than seventy countries.

If the three of us all agreed on it, then it is probably true.

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Yesterday, by coincidence, was the summer solstice.

The longest day of the year.

I do not know when the three of us will be able to gather again.

I hope it will not be too far in the future.