Mr. Inomata

I had carried around his New Year's card for 15 years, meaning to call him next time I was in Japan. I thought about writing to him but I never got around to it. 22 years ago Mr. Inomata of Japan had come to Peavine to talk to me about a business idea he had and for several years we had stayed in touch and he hosted me to lunch on a couple of my trips to Japan, but the contact dropped off after the company I worked for was sold off. In his last correspondence he told me about an invention he had patented. It was called a home bread-making machine. But a few years after we stopped communicating I bumped into him on a street in Tokyo during a brief business trip to Japan. Do you know what the chances of that are? Especially because he was not living in this city of 15-million people. He too was on a business trip to the city. We promised to stay in touch and meet next time I was in Japan. We didn't.

When I moved to Tokyo a few months ago I brought the card with me and I kept thinking I'd go to his home city and look him up. I finally found a phone number for his small company on the Internet - I had been looking for several years. I called the number today. The lady that answered the phone told me Mr. Inomata had passed away three years ago. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that", I said. Too late again.