Hi All,
On Friday evening I set up a meet at very short notice. Since I had one member RSVP to it, I went to the meetup location and waited. And waited and waited.
After about 20 minutes I realized, my first meetup was going to be a no show 🙁
Never one to be disheartened, I found some new friends instead. Or rather they found me. Yes, a couple of gentlemen from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police approached me wanting to know what I was up to:
After explaining to them that I wasn’t at all posing a danger to the public, merely in fact that I was waiting for someone I hadn’t seen nor met before, my newfound friends asked to search my belongings!
“残念ながら、お断りさせていただきます” I replied, with a confident smile.
You see, where I come from in London, if a police officer wishes to perform a search, there needs to be a “reasonable suspicion” that a person is carrying some contraband.
「持物検査を行う正当な事由が必要」ということですね。待ち合わせをしている行為は不審かどうかはまた、その本人にもよりますよネ (笑)
反省です。
So myself and the officer engage in a perfectly pleasant negotiation over searching my belongings, at the end of which we come to a compromise whereby I would show the gentlemen my ID, in exchange for letting me retain some of my dignity.
もう20分もそこに立っていて、色んな人に見られて恥ずかしかったんですよ～。これ以上は…
A Japanese National. No problem, they say. Phew…. Not that I had anything to hide, just trying to maintain my dignity. After all, what is man without any dignity eh?
We shake hands then bid each other farewell and good luck. 
And that is the story of my first meetup!
***
急にmeetupを勝手ながらスケジュールしてしまい、皆様に大変ご迷惑をおかけしました！
色んな反省点のある一日でした(笑)。
次回はしっかりmeetupを事前に報いますので、これからもよろしくお願いします！
Yours truly,
Julian