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I received a phone call last night at 1 am.  I thought it was an odd time for a phone call and it was even stranger when I found out it was my friend Ayumi, whom I hadn't talked to in over two years.  The first thing she had mentioned was the name Maro and immediately I knew something bad was to be said.

A few months ago, back in October, my friend said that Maro had returned to Japan after finding out he had some form of cancer.  Without insurance in the states to cover it, he was forced to return, although from what i heard he was on the verge of getting a green card and slowly getting things under way for himself. 

Well, none of us had heard from him for a while and apparently he had gone into the hospital.  Then three nights ago, he passed away.

I don't have a lot of details on what happened, how he got cancer nor if was in pain towards the end.  I do want to say that I've been pretty upset all day and kinda queasy about the whole situation.  Having lost my dad around the time Maro was diagnosed with cancer, I can say this past year or two has been really awful for me personally.  Job-wise things had gotten better, but it's very hard to lose two people, especially one of my own family members.

It's really angering and frustrating when you hear something like this.  I don't know if having insurance in the states would've allowed him to live since this was quite abrupt.  But I do know that it's sad to hear that someone wasn't able to get proper health care in a country like the US.

Maro wasn't one of these people who was sponging off the government or shooting people on the streets.  He was a really good guy, very fun to be around, just wanted a normal life and to be able to enjoy the American lifestyle like anyone else.  During my 2005 period in LA, we hung out quite a bit.  Maro would often come over to Kris' home and cook us some excellent Japanese or Chinese meals, something far better than what you'd get at the trashy, wannabe Japanese restaurants run by impersonators. 

One of the craziest nights we spent together was on a Saturday - Sunday all night run.  Kris, Maro and I went to Vegas right after I had got off work from Ticketmaster.  It kinda sucked because I had to work a Saturday as our project was slowly winding down.  But once I got the okay to leave, I went straight to Kris' house.  Soon after, Maro came down and we packed into my 2005 Rav4 and jammed straight to Vegas in the night.  They were having Sasha I believe in Vegas that night and Kris and Maro dearly wanted to check him out. 

It was a pretty awesome drive, one of the better drives to Vegas I could remember.  The three of us, just guys, hanging out, no real worries nor cares.  Maro and I had very similar taste in music, loving old 80's metal/hard rock bands as well as a lot of 80's pop music.  So when i was in the driver's seat, I played Starship's "Sara" and "We Built This City" and Maro and I sang the whole song together.  It was a great bonding moment because I managed to find someone else who liked a lot of the same music as me! 

We got their around 10 pm and I was pretty exhausted.  So I ended up renting a hotel room for a few hours while Kris and Maro went to the DJ show.  They came back around 5 am or so.  At that point, we were all pretty wired so we decided to head out a little bit.  We drove to the Rio and I managed to score $200 from a slot machine and I offered to pay for our breakfast at the Rio's World Carnival Buffet.  One of the funnier moments in my life happened when I went to use the toilet.  Some guy (a fat guy as it sounded like) ran to the stall next to me, slammed the door, didn't even bother locking the door and made this torpedo-like sound in the toilet.  About one minute later, he managed to lock the stall, but I got a great laugh out of that.  When I went back I told Kris and Maro the story, calling it a "bazooka" (probably more like a depth charger) and Maro laughed hysterically at the joke.  It was cool because I got to make him laugh and I got a great laugh out of it too.

Afterwards, we were pretty wired and decided to hit the Mirage.  Kris and I decided to hang out in the spa at the Mirage.  Poor Maro was so tired he just slept in the car while we fell asleep in the nice lawn chairs in the spa area.  Afterwards, refreshed we trekked back home.  Of course, nothing is perfect as we hit the typical Sunday traffic back to LA.  It was worse than I expected though because there was a major accident along the road.  We ended up waiting forever while they cleared the accident.  Eventually, we made it back.  I felt like a rock star that weekend in just living life for what it was worth and enjoying the hell out of it with my company.

Although my life at home wasn't that great that year, I did have a very good group of friends that I loved hanging out with.  Maro was part of that group and in a way it was almost like a family.  We even managed to get him to play Neverwinter Nights a little bit.  To me, seeing this is just so tragic because he was so young, vibrant and just on the verge of living his dream in being able to fully enjoy the American life.

I'm very sad I hadn't been able to stay in contact since returning to Japan and I'm sadder yet that I never even had a chance to say any last words to him, almost like how my dad passed away.  But at least for a short period, I was able to know a very fine human being.

Thanks Maro for being a good friend.  I hope one day our paths cross again so we can complete the rest of this untold journey.  Take care and rest peacefully.