After the gig, one of good friend of mine, Hiroko and
Yoichi, the pianist of the evening, went out for a drink (… drinks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know!) I can’t really recall in detail of what we were talking about; however, I managed to remember one thing clearly…

I used to live in Philly when I was at Temple, and lived in several places (basically I lived 1 apartment per year, and had 4 moves in 5 years). Each place was unique and I had a good time (and bad time – oh, lovely college days!).

The place I have lived in my Junior year was on a corner of the 10th and Pine, right above a little deli called “the Foodery.” It was a tiny, Jr. 1BD room, but had a lot of sunlight. I hated it when it rained (rain comes into the room and wet window panes and floor because windows were old.) I hated when roaches strolled across the room. I hated my door knob that fell and locked me out. BUT I loved the environment and the access to the school. I loved the sunlight. I loved the coziness of it. In overall, I enjoyed living in that little apartment.

Anyhow… Yoichi is Temple alumni like myself. He came to Temple’s jazz program XX years later after I graduated. Although the generation is different, we know exactly where the things were and could laugh at them. Which I never, ever thought I would be able to share it with another Japanese from the same school! (thank you, Yoichi.)

Then, we were talking about where he and I used live and I started to list up the places I have been. AND we found out that he lived in the same apartment building on the 10th and Pine while he was at Temple. WHAAAAAAAttt? I mean… there are bunch of apartment buildings in Center City Philadelphia, and what kinda odds are they for us to live in the same building (knowing probably the same landload, perhaps)?

After I got home, I searched the Foodery on the net and found their website. They really cleaned up (LoL). It looked way fancier than the one I know of. Anyhow, I am glad that they are still there and being in business.