osaka, japan

Characters, rather than stories:

• Two Turkish boys who spend their days shooting guns, riding motorcycles with limited protection by the Black Sea coast, and smoking cigars. They also have PhDs in computer engineering.
• An Indonesian Goldman Sachs banker, who counts Jokowi among his friends.
• An Aussie, who taught me a lot about family life, his particular views on romance, and ways to describe the world with a lot more colour.
• Countless Japanese grandmothers who commented on my height.
• Hiroki — simply a gem of a human being, generally honest despite his insistence that he doesn’t speak English (his English is perfect).
• A couple — one barber, one clothes designer — bemused by yakitori choices.
• Math teacher, with the most incredible travel log I have ever heard.