I promised to relate how some friends and I met Angel Wong, an actress / travel show host / singer ("Search for me in Wikipedia," she assured us) and her manager so here it is; a tale set in a restaurant under some train tracks in Yurakucho (有楽町), accompnied by some happy Japanese salarymen.
Tokyo's need for space is such as restaurants spring up everywhere, in this case, the JR Yurakucho station grew an extension and it became a restaurant. ZZ was on his monthly trip to Tokyo from Nagoya so we arranged to meet for dinner. Neither of us knew the area well so we picked a random table at that random restaurant ("Wah, never eaten under the train tracks before!") and started ordering. IC was to join us later.
Before long, two middle-aged salarymen in suits came along and sat at the next table. Since they were still dry, they still looked rather serious and tired. ZZ and I happily caught up and talked about the good old days.
It was probably around the 4th course when two girls came along and sat one table over. So it was them, the salarymen, and us. Both looked like students and one spoke in an Australian/American accent. One was more dressed up and the other bore the expression of a person who knows that the other person whom she hangs out with gets all the attention.
The two girls started ordering, and that was when the salarymen started paying attention, because it became apparent that (1) they didn't speak Japanese and (2) they were tourists. Naturally ZZ told me, "hey give them a hand lah" so I went over and helped them order some sashimi and sake ("Tell the waitress we want sake that goes with the sashimi ok?" the more dressed-up girl said.).
At this point the alcohol had boosted their courage so the salarymen loosened up and started chatting to everyone, including us. They were amused by the fact that we were all foreigners and wanted ZZ, IC and me to translate between them and the other two girls.
I'm like, great... I get to be an interpreter for two middle-aged salarymen hitting on two tourists. The commotion started when they found out that the dressed-up girl was a TV personality in Malaysia and had hosted a travel program that introduced the Tohoku (東北) region of Japan. You have no idea how many times I was asked to re-confirm the fact that "Oi, oi, is she really a celebrity?!" But it was all in good fun really. The other girl turned out to be her manager.
So yeah, go ahead and look "Angel Wong" (very Hong Kong-ish name eh?) on Google. Must be a tough life, being a celebrity...
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