TL joined AR after me. He, a Singaporean, was a graduate
of a top Japanese private university. He was fluent in
Japanese but it seemed to me he didn’t know what kind of
language he should use as appropriate for the occasion,
which was a strength for him as a sales guy when he talked
to Japanese clients. He worked at Yasuda Shintaku in Japan,
and before joining AR, he was at SC in Singapore. I don’t
know, and I don’t remember if he told me why he quit SC.
But anyway he joined AR, and we spent much time together.
He became quite unhappy soon after joining AR with one of
the reasons being that it was a family company. Before he
joined, he had asked if it was so, and the answer from the
boss was “no.” In reality, the company was supported with
money of the family of the boss. Another complaint he had
was with a client/account he got. It was a huge American
financial institution. After having secured business with
the company, he was feeling that the boss excluded him
from the transactions with it.
He was the one who navigated me in my first year or so
bringing me to places which are not listed in the
guidebook. We ate and drank together, and more. One day,
we were drinking at a Far East Plaza pub managed by a
Japanese woman.
There he met an old friend of his, working for a Japanese
freight company and married to an American, and we started
drinking together. After a while, his friend suggested that
we go to Gaylang. TL arranged a better-class place there.
I don’t know how he was so connected.
Or another day, he came back to the office at around 3pm
and asked me, “Wanna go out for a shot today?” He was
asking me if I wanted to visit a “health center.” We, with
another friend of his (I think he was working for a bank),
went to a Lavender health center. He told me that his wife
was now only mother of their daughters.
He ate quick. He drank quick. And he acted quick. So quick
that I often found it hard to keep up with him.
During out talks, he would say, "That's Japanese way of
thinking," to which I would reply, "No. That's my way of
thinking."
It was also he who brought me to “Teri’s,” the very first
Japanese restaurant I visited in Singapore. We went to the
place more than a few times, befriending the manager and
the chef there. It was also he who brought me to “Tamako,”
another Japanese restaurant. I remember he told me that
the chef there had been a “Self Defense Force” soldier.
It was at this restaurant where he introduced me to a
Nikkei writer, who, years later, would inform me of his
passing. TL’s favorite on the menu was “Ika-Mayo
(grilled whole squid covered with thick mayo).”
Teri’s is no more and I have no idea about Tamako, though,
in subsequent years, I visited Tamako at Concorde (Le
Meridian) Hotel in Orchard twice. Food was bad, cooked by a
Chinese chef,
on these two occasions. On the first occasion, I remember
seeing the face of PM Koizumi on the TV screen and SM said,
“small eyes” about him.
Well, I found sometime after I moved to this area that the
place where Teri’s used to be is now “Tomoe,” another
Japanese restaurant. I used to come to this area with TL,
I thought with some emotion. And the bus terminal of Bishan
where he left me saying, “You can go home from here.” And
all those Bishan HDB flats, at one of which he lived. His
was a two-storied flat. He told me the place was the most
expensive in the country when he bought it and he bought
that flat at the second floor of the complex because he
didn’t want his mother, when she got old, to climb up many
stairs.
I visited his place a few times, eating dinner prepared by
his Philippine maid and talking about business. I also spent
time with his wife and two daughters. His wife was a
“karaoke” queen.
And when I was still living off Chinatown (Neil Road), I met
the boss of “Tomoe” at least once for a business meeting.
Coincidence. He spoke Osaka-accented Japanese.
SHAME ON YOU, MARIA LESSIE FLORES. YOU ARE WANTED BY THE
POLICE. SURRENDER AND FACE JUSTICE.
Alcohol intake record:
February 9 (Thu.): white wine
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