The Room

This is going to be hard for me to write. Those of you who know us in real life know that unlike Ganz, or Twerp, or Junior, or most of the Friday Knights, Ariko is not based after a real person. But what you may not know is that she is instead an amalgamation of several people that we have come across in our journeys. As a healthy red-blooded American male I can not deny that in my youth I have had a rather curious obsession with Asian (specifically Japanese) females. My obsession was so deep rooted in fact that when I was 8 or so I told my mom I was going to marry a Japanese woman. Fate however, had other plans for me, in my mind, better plans.

In spite of that, during college, and before I started dating my wife, I had a tryst or two with a Japanese woman or so. Ganz, being a close friend of mine throughout college was no different. Ariko is part mashup, part fantasy, of the girls that Ganz and I knew, and dated throughout our college years. I’ve plucked several personality traits and quirks from these women and mixed them in a bowl to make Ariko, who I hope is a terribly flawed and terribly wonderful character.

That is why a certain bit of news that I received last week brings me a great amount of sorrow. On last Saturday I got the news that my close friend and Ganz’s ex succumbed to stomach cancer. Her name was Rika Muroi, and she was only 29 when she died. For me, Rika was a big inspiration for Ariko, some of which we have explored, and some of which we will explore in later updates. In her short years on this planet Rika seemed to make it her duty to rebel against the stereotypes of Japanese women. She wasn’t petite, or demure, or submissive, and she didn’t give a rat’s ass about popular fashion. She was wild, and fun to be around, she listened to punk rock and heavy metal, and she was so against the grain that on more than one occasion, on two different continents, a Japanese person who didn’t know her complimented her on how good her Japanese was. To which she would reply “I hope so.”
So why am I writing this here? Well, Rika left quite an impression on me and when I sit down to write Ariko sometimes (but not always) Rika bleeds through the ink and I can see her reflected in the actions of Ariko. This won’t change for me, I’ll still write Ariko, and every once in a while see Rika waving at me from beyond the ink and color. The fact that Rika has passed does however mean that a big part of Ariko has also passed, and for some reason I thought that it was important to put that up here.

I’ve been firmly distracting myself from sadness all spring break.  Don’t really deal with death well.  I truly did not think Rika would die.  Her mom had the same cancer and didn’t, you see.  I don’t know why that translated to any kind of reassurance in my mind.  I guess you never think someone is going to die.  Silly,  since we all do.  I have a lot of fun and adventurous memories of Rika.   She was just so… cool.  She was Japanese, and a fan type of person, and we met her here in America.  That is kind of rare.  She was just so fun and full of life.  She was so unexpected.  She was also really thoughtful.  She brought Wil some Vanilla Coke while we were in Japan and I remember being really surprised and impressed that she found it for him.  Being in a foreign country makes you homesick sometimes, and little things like familiar food or drink really mean a lot.    I was a much more shy person when I knew her, and I wish I could have met her again so I could interact with her on a whole different level.  I don’t know that this would ever have happened since she married and lived in Germany, but we might have been able to meet some day again in America or Japan.  Maybe even Germany.  Now we’ll have to wait.  I’m sure we will meet again, though.  Some day.  Until then we will be missing one Rockin’ Woman.