RIP Ichirou

I have some sad news. Ichirou Matsumoto passed away last night.

Ichirou was a long-time student, but more than that, he was one of my best friends. We both said that we were like brothers.

He had been battling liver cancer for a long while now. He also had other internal health problems over the years but he was always very positive when we talked about it. Even last week, he said that he would get stronger and help me cook for another BBQ. Ichirou and FY were my original BBQ cooking crew many years ago. I’ve always enjoyed cooking and talking with them before everybody else showed up for the BBQs. They were the first to arrive and the last to leave. I must thank Zenji for introducing Ichirou to me.

Here are a couple photos from 2009 and 2013.