Rilakkuma and Kiiroitori

Announcement: This is the 100th post of 2009.

Finally I managed to sit at my kitchen table and relax a little. A deep breath and a sip from my tea added to my overall feeling of serenity. I looked about me and was very pleased that my home was clean again and it had neatness and order. I allowed myself a satisfactory smile knowing that once 'Miss Mayhem' is back from her working week in Thailand. It will be like living once more with 'Eris', the Goddess of strife and discord. One day this girl may listen to my gentle hints and be a bit more tidier around the home but until then, I'll continue to care and tidy up after her! I had a fifteen minute chat with Hitomi who has enjoyed a few lovely days in Bangkok and will be traveling out to Phuket for the weekend! She says the work is fine and that the nightlife is fantastic. I didn't ask if she missed me! I know exactly what kind of pleasures the majority of tourists to Phuket seek, it has great beaches and tropical forests and the wild life is not just restricted to the sea life and forest dwellers.

I managed to get an evening coffee with my friend Kuri after work. Actually she sent me a text asking that we meet up for a little chat. We met in Zoka's coffee shop in Mejiro which lies halfway between her place and mine and also on the other side of the 'Mars bar', our usual Saturday night haunt.
She was late and when she did arrive she looked five or ten years older! By that I mean that she looked worried, stressed, overworked and suffering from a complete lack of sleep.
I asked what was wrong and the tale she told me could have made me cry and slap her at the same time.
This girl she met on the Internet has disappeared from her life and taken a few valuable items with her.
The lust was intense for a month and nothing mattered while they only had eyes and everything else for each other. Azami, Kuri's partner of the last two years was pushed out into the cold because of some minor misdemeanors on her part which as everyone can probably guess was the poor justification of a reason or more likely a poor excuse for Kuri to embrace passion anew with her new found girl from the Internet world.
Poor Azami was rejected and abandoned. One of the problems of a love lost is that you tend to lose friends that you had as a couple. I haven't heard from Azami since the break up but I must admit that I didn't make any attempt to even try. Our table at the 'Mars' just hasn't been the same without them sharing drinks and fun with us and the rumors abound as they are wont to do do with all absentee regulars as to what happened, who with and why. I wonder if Hitomi and I perhaps speculated without facts. We probably did!

On dangerous ground once more I tread and I say that because of the temptation this girl has always given me when Hitomi is away, I put my arms around her and held her supportively until our coffee's were in imminent danger of becoming cold. What can she do? Cry a little and make a few semi amusing remarks about her inability to find the right girl. I just listened as she poured her heart out and I didn't say anything but I thought and always have thought that Azami was the right girl for her! What do I know? I'm an outsider.
"Any chance you two getting back together?" I asked tentatively.
I received a despondent reply with icy tears on her voice and her frame hunched over with the weight of resignation upon her shoulders. I just shook my head. "Leave it with me," I said, putting my hand on hers, "I'll see what I can do!" Auntie Jazz will try to patch things up. It is perhaps something I should not interfere with but I have always believed that you have to try to help your friends. Cupid, lend me your bow!
She laughed quite suddenly.
I looked at her with a questioning look.
"You are just like Kiioitori!" she said and laughed some more.

For readers who are not familiar with Japanese cartoon characters, Kiiroitori is a cute little yellow chicken.
Kiiroitori is the thinker, the logical nagger who is a close friend of a very lazy bear called Rilakkuma. Rilakkuma actually means 'relaxing bear' and what makes Kuri's remark even more funny is that my dear sweet Hitomi has an obsession about this bear. She collects his cup, his bag, his toys, his pencils, his thermos flask, his soap and other beauty products and anything with his name endorsing them. She even has a Rilakkuma waste paper bin!
Hitomi is the relaxing lazy bear and I am the cold, logical nagger who tries to keep the bear out of trouble and tries to make the bear do his chores!
What a perfect representation of us.
I imagine that soon Hitomi and I will have new nicknames. Perhaps we already have those names in secret whispers with the way Kuri suddenly seemed to confirm a thought she'd had for some time rather than suddenly make the connection.
I have made a couple of compilation photo sets of Hitomi and her lazy bear Rilakkuma from her disc.

 

You will notice that in all those images there is only one instance of Kiiroitori the little yellow chick. On the waste bin! How ominous...

I have a slight fascination with "Hello Kitty", but I'm not even close to the same level as my girl and her bear!