Meeting new friend

24/10/07

This morning I actually took the courage to take bus alone (initially wanted to cycle but didn’t as not familiar with the way) from the university to SunSquare, in downtown, to attend the Japanese class there. Along the way to the bus station I took some pictures, these are the common scene here. The paddy fields, (you can find it everywhere, even a small piece of land they would not waste it1) the trees, (I don't know what's the fruit's name in English) flowers, and this plastic bottles which i still can't figure out the purpose of hanging them there. They look cute to me. :)

Lydia brought me to the class and left as she’s expecting a guest to visit her. The level in that class is too high for me, I hardly understand any words they said! They already can read the Japanese sentences and fill in the blank for the grammar and vocab exercise. Anyway, Lydia said I have to memorize all the Hiragana and Katakana first then I would be able to catch up. That’s tough. I hate memorizing.

Today finally I met a lonely lady in Japan. Why ‘finally’? I’ve heard many times from Father Chris about the lonely wives in Japan who walks the dog everyday and you almost can see them everywhere. but so far the first and only person I found walking the dog here is an old man nearby my apartment. maybe this is just a town yet so there are not so many of the lonely women walking dogs?

I met her at Lydia’s place -- After the two hour dummy class I went to Lydia’s place again where I was invited to join for lunch as her guest was interested to know me, and guess what, her hometown is just one hour drive from mine – Sarikei~ what a surprise to meet people coming from the same place as I do! her name is Otake san.

The whole afternoon she shared with us of her life. she worked in Sibu for few years before so she knew Sibu quite well too. I said ‘knew’ because that is over 20 years back and there’s too many changes occurred, not only in Sarikei but also Sibu. then she went to work for 7 years in KL, and there she met her husband, working in the same company. She’s a Christian who used to pray to marry a Christian man but eventually she fall in love with Japanese.

She struggled a lot after going to Japan. At that time there wasn’t so many of the foreigners in Japan, and there’s no free Japanese language class like we have now, all she knew was her husband. That was a tough time, she had to pay to learn Japanese, and travel by train to attend the class, and she has no friends. The Japanese are very polite, but they hardly open their hearts to accept other people. it’s not easy to make true friends with Japanese.

Nevertheless, she stayed here for more than 20 years, with two daughters in high school. her husband has been transferred from places to places, so she stayed in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, etc.. and now in HigashiHiroshima. only the last 2-3 months she started to join this international community club, and get to meet more people. before this all her life is about house works, children, husband, and shopping (or window shopping she said). but I didn’t dare to ask if she had or has a pet. from the conversation, I guess no.

Now that she’s so used to the life here, this is her home. Life here is much more comfortable compare to Msia. The facilities, the systems, the benefits, etc.. (I totally agree with it!) Coming back to M’sia she only feels like a guest, not a member. Her parents passed away already, and everything had changed in Msia. Yet she didn’t give up her nationality as a Malaysian. After all, this is where she was born and grew up.

She also brought me to cheap stores to buy food. When new friends bring me to new places to buy stuff, things are getting cheaper. That’s really nice of them. But it’s not easy for me to go there often, as it’s far.

Buses are really punctual here. When it’s mentioned in the time table bus is coming at 4.49pm, the bus is there. And the stations they are stopping, the price and etc are stated very clearly on their digital board. But it’s not cheap though. For me to travel to downtown cost me 540 yen, this is more than RM16. Once you get on the bus, you have to pay 150 yen already. But it’s very comfortable, fast and efficient. Again, Japan offers you good quality and good services, and you pay for them.