Sapporo reunion of Versailles friends

Me, people I met in Versailles, and some other people who happened to be in the magic bar.

Two months ago I met two girls in Versailles (France) that were there on vacation (I was there on a business trip). They turned out to be from Sapporo, and in fact to work at the university hospital of the university I work at!

In Versailles

Since they are nurses and nurses in Japan work a lot, the first time that they both had time off after returning from France was Sunday I week ago. We had dinner together and they wanted to see magic in the magic bar where I work. I do not normally work there on Sundays, but I figured that it would be many months before there would be a day where they both do not work and that I do work in our magic bar, so I just volunteered to work this Sunday too in our magic bar.

When we entered the bar, it was quite busy. Also, one of the girls said: "Ah, I have been here before!"... Though she had not been in our bar when I was working.

I had a great time. The food was good, and they told me funny stories from their Paris vacation. The conversation was funny and interesting on other topics too, for instance when we talked about their image of what happens during army training (Sweden used to have compulsory army training for men)...

They were impressed that I was waiting outside the restaurant 5 minutes before the agreed upon time, even though I am a foreigner. They said it was very Japanese. Most people I know in Sweden are very punctual, and I tend to show up 10 to 15 minutes before the appointed time (my mother shows up 30 minutes early, but my brother often shows up slightly late (though perhaps only when meeting me)). My Japanese friends are generally not punctual. I have one friend who is almost always on time, but pretty much all my other friends are more often late than they are on time. I have been told this is very uncommon in Japan, but since I have hundreds of acquaintances that are both Japanese and that are generally not punctual, I must have incredibly bad luck in meeting people or it is not really that rare. Other Japanese friends tell me that it is "because you seem like a person that would not get angry if I was late", so they show up late only when meeting me... which to me sounds like an even worse personality trait than being late in general...

It was also funny that one of the nurses asked me if I know 胡麻豆腐 ("goma tofu") when we talked about Japanese food. I know it, because it is quite common in Japan, but the other nurse said: "What is that?" Which both me and the first nurse thought was strange, since presumably she is Japanese and has lived at least 25 years in Japan, and since even I have ran into goma tofu several times during my much shorter time in Japan.

The nurses seemed to enjoy the magic that I did, and they also saw one of the other magicians doing more magic while I was busy with other groups of customers (the bar was pretty full the whole evening). When leaving they said: "Kato-san also seemed like a very nice person". So I told him that later, and said that they seemed to be easily fooled. He said that that was a rude thing to say to him, but I claimed that I only meant that they enjoyed the magic. He did not believe me and said that he is most likely the nicest person of all people working for our magic bars. I said that that is most likely true, but that it does not say very much to be the nicest in this group. Which he agreed was true. So there are at least some people here in Japan that get some types of irony.

The Versailles gardens

The gardens of the Versailles palace are enormous. They are also very beautiful. I had a ticket with access to everything, so I just walked into the garden. The two nurses from my university had bought the cheapest ticket, which only gave access to the palace, so they could not enter. They called for me to wait for them and told me that they needed to buy tickets. I walked out again (my ticket was a full day free pass, so I could come and go as many times as I liked) and told the young French woman at the gate that "I am with those two, so I will be back again soon". She said: "Ah, you again!" and laughed at me when I went back in a few minutes later.

Buying tickets to the gardens

Me and two nurses that turned out to work at my university

We walked around in the gardens for an hour or two. We got to see some water fountain show synchronized with music and many other nice things. We were asked by an older Japanese couple to take a photo for them (they seemed to have the same heuristic as me for choosing people to help you with photos). I asked them to take a photo with my camera in return, so we could have a photo of all three of us too.

After walking around in the gardens we also took the same train back to Paris. Then I took the subway to the south to go find a magic shop, and they took the same subway line in the opposite direction to go see the opera house. They said they will come visit our magic bar sometime, and it would be fun to meet them again.

A surprisingly modern looking arch in the presumably very old gardens

More construction work, and some very nice looking gardens

Fountains synchronized with music

Chance meetings and nice looking things at Versailles

Photo taken by someone unlikely to steal my camera

In Paris, there are signs everywhere stating that anything that is not nailed down and/or glued to your body will immediately be stolen by armies of pickpockets. At Versailles, there was even a sign saying that your camera was likely to be stolen even at the security check where they x-rayed the bags before you were allowed to enter the palace.

Model of the huge gardens

There is a souvenir shop in the middle of one of the fancy palace corridors.

Once inside, I wanted a photo with myself in it, but handing over the camera to someone was likely to result in them taking the camera and running away, according to the signs. I noticed a girl speaking Japanese nearby, and I figured Japanese people do not steal cameras (or anything except bicycles and umbrellas) I figured she would be a safe choice. I asked here in Japanese if she could take a photo for me and she said yes, of course. She was there with a friend, and she asked me to take a photo of the two of them together, using their camera, too.

The ceilings and walls were beautifully painted

Bedroom of the king

Next, we saw another fairly long line to wait in, so we walked over and stood in line together. We talked for a while and they asked me why I can speak Japanese. I said that I live in Sapporo, and they were very surprised and told me that they also live in Sapporo. Which surprised me too.

Hall of mirrors (the party room)

Me in the mirror in the hall of mirrors

Me in the hall of mirrors

Me and someone who works at the same university

Once we reached the end of the line, it turned out to be a line to borrow audio-guides, so you did not actually have to wait in line. I got myself an audio-guide now that I had waited in line for 10 minutes. The two Japanese girls also got audio-guides and asked me if I had got one in Japanese too. I said no, and English one. I also told them that when I was in the Louvre museum, I got both the English and the Japanese map of the museum and the showcased different pieces of art. Apparently the things that are famous in Japan and in the English speaking world are not the same, and looking at these differences is also quite interesting.

Bedroom of the queen

Small room for private dinners. The small chairs are for people watching the king and queen eat.

A surprisingly empty corridor

We wandered around the palace together too, since occasionally you want to have photos of nice rooms with yourself in the photo. We talked about the palace stuff and what the audio-guides were saying, but also about other things.

Construction work to fix-up some parts of the palace

Me again

They asked me what I was doing in Paris and said that I would be presenting some research at a conference. They then asked me if I was from Hokudai (my university), so I said yes. Then they said: "We are also from Hokudai!" It turns out that they work as nurses at our university hospital. They work with cancer patients, and we are involved in a research project related to cancer research too, so the coincidences just kept piling up. One of them had even been to a magic bar in Sapporo, and I though "It cannot be?!", but it turned out to be a different magic bar than the ones I work in, haha.

Waiting outside Versailles

Once I finally reached Versailles, I found some lines to wait in. First there was a short line to buy a ticket. I bought a ticket that gave me access to everything, though there were cheaper tickets for seeing only the palace. Then I got in line to enter the actual palace. The line was very long. Very very long. In the photo above, there is a very long line with about 4 people abreast. This line curved back and forth with 10 or 11 of the lines shown in the photo. I waited for slightly more than two hours in line. It was very sunny and hot, so I came back to my hotel with very red arms, neck, and feet (I wore sandals).