1996: Lee leaves for Japan

Ten years ago my friend Lee “Doc” Rhea left for his three-year adventure in Japan. I managed to get a long weekend off from Apple to rent a car, drive to Houston and see him off with Eiko at the International Airport. Doc’s flight didn’t leave until later on Saturday so we spent most of Friday hanging out, having a big steak dinner (steak is very expensive in Japan) and making last-minute purchases for things that aren’t easily available there. We all thought it was pretty funny that the Japanese Ministry of Education’s guidebook said to buy condoms because it purported the myth about Asian men. Eiko and I were very sad to see him go but I think it was a great career move for him. 
 
The drive home made me really sad too. It represented a sea change with my life in Austin. Doc was the person who brought me to this city and he was pretty much my primary friend at the time (I was still making new ones through ACC and Apple). Initially we hit a rough patch at the end of 1994, made amends in 1995 (a rather uncharacteristic streak of maturity on my part) and despite all the scares with Apple’s future (it looked like they’d go under then), I think we were even better friends then. Now he was going to Japan. With him gone and Sonia in France, I felt pretty abandoned. I was one of the proponents of him going though. He’d been studying the language for six years, he’d never get any better unless he lived there and the Japanese government’s program was an awesome opportunity. 
 
Thankfully, the sadness was short lived for the both of us. My life turned a financial and career corner by Labor Day. Meanwhile Doc lived in Isahiya (in the southwest, near Nagasaki) for three years where he had a pretty educational and entertaining time. One unexpected consequence was him getting married to his wife Masami. Unexpected? Well, he was there to teach, work and learn. Sure he’d be dating Japanese women, [as if there’d be any other kind in Japan?] yet marriage wasn’t in the big plan of improving his speaking and listening proficiency. Still worked out.