An Afternoon with a Member of Japan's Greatest Musical Family!

Kyoko Ifukube. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Today (Tuesday, February 6), I spent a nice afternoon with Kyoko Ifukube (composer Akira Ifukube's daughter) and a couple of her friends. We arranged this meeting last week via our group chat on a Japanese messaging app, but, yesterday, Tokyo experienced a massive snowstorm (which even gave us some thunder!) that put our plans in doubt, especially since Ifukube-san lives quite far from Tokyo in Chiba Prefecture. However, I got contacted by one of Ifukube-san's friends first thing this morning, confirming that we were still on. Thankfully, most of the snow had already melted.

Our group at Saizeriya.

We met at Nakameguro Station at 11:15 and went to a nearby yakiniku restaurant. My plan was to eat as little as possible (I usually don't eat lunch), but that was easier sad than done. My plans were foiled even further when we made our way to a Saizeriya restaurant and ordered dessert. I had a slice of chocolate cake. Oh, well. It's not like I eat this much every day!

With Kyoko Ifukube inside Saizeriya.

Scheduling this meet-up was a little tricky, as Ifukube-san and one of her friends will be taking separate trips to Europe next month, so this was the best time for us to get together before then. It was a great afternoon, and I was surprised by how quickly time passed. Before I knew it, it was almost three o'clock! Unfortunately, I had to go back to work. 

And that's a wrap! What a lovely day it was!