Remembering a friend from a corner on Ginza, Tokyo

It's five years today since my good friend Yoshio died. By way of remembering him I was flicking through old sketchbooks from Japan. This scribble of a drawing from Cafe Doutour, Ginza was done between mouthfuls of extremely good chocolate cake, as I watched the endless pulse of traffic and pedestrians. It's a late February afternoon, 2002, and rain threatening and I'm waiting for Yoshio to finish lecturing his rather reluctant students. Opposite is the entrance to Mitsukoshi where one day, two years later, I will go with my wife and young boys after watching kabuki and buy a floral dog collar for our neurotic German Pointer.

When Yoshio arrives to meet me his seventy year old head is full of plans for our trip to Greece and future creative projects...

It's not much of a drawing. But looking at the lines, I can remember and vividly feel the moment - and all the other moments that happened around that intersection - and the importance of that friendship.

And still taste the cake.

Some other drawings and images from those days are at: www.juliansedgwick.co.uk/Welcome.html