Some of the best times in Japan come from those little moments of confusion

After all these years in Japan, and living in the same area for many of them, we gratefully feel we're part of the local community in many ways but know we'll always have the enjoyment of hilarious communication breakdowns on a fairly regular basis. And last week was something of a classic when we were invited to friends' for dinner. And yes, there's a language barrier for me but with patience all around, we can usually work anything out.

So sitting around the table, a few glasses of wine had been quaffed, and the host asked about a friend of mine she's met at our house many years ago. It took a little while but, with the excitement levels building, I realised who they were talking about. A good friend with a wicked sense of humour (last year he spotted us enjoying our sons birthday dinner in a restaurant in Akasaka, central Tokyo. With a loud flourish of "sorry I'm late" he bounced down, much to our son's surprise and joined us for a couple of glasses of a fine wine, but I digress...)

So we're having dinner last week, and we figure out who our friends were referring to, and they said they'd love to meet him again. It'd only been ten years. So, my wife, phone in hand, looked up his number and called him. The answer came with a deathly silence until I spoke and the voice screamed "Oh God, I thought you were dead!". We let him down gently and explained he'd come up in conversation and our neighbours would enjoy seeing him again though I must admit to still being a little confused by the deathly reference. But by now, our friends only understood the word "dead" and thought it was someone else breaking the bad news about my friend instead of me.

Long story short, he'd seen my wife's phone number calling him and seeing this, quite reasonably, formed the conclusion that she was carrying bad news. With the call being a liberal blend of Japanese and English, and only partly audible as it wasn't on speaker, there was panic all around until everyone saw (and heard) me crying laughing as I'd realised what had happened. He'd thought I was dead and they, in turn, thought he was dead. Anyway, I'm fine, my friend of the phone is fine and a very kind invitation has been extended from our friends, who were rather glad he wasn't deceased, after all. 

I'm looking forward to the reunion dinner at some point in the future, though I may be a little more diligent in advance this time around and confirm no one has shuffled off this mortal coil. And then we can sit, eat, relax and return to the shochu. Unless, of course, someone else actually dies in the meantime...