Nippon 27. Goodbyes

Nippon 27. Goodbyes

Arriving back in town, we decide on a coffee. Not as easy as it sounds, for there are favourite and very favourite coffee places. There are lots of coffee places to walk past in the search. By the time we reach town favourite one is closing so we try for number two. My eye isn’t keen enough to detect what makes a good one or a bad one, well maybe a not so good one.
Eventually we find what they are looking for, I just need some warm fluid. We sit and chat, it’s a wonderful time to listen to how life is for these girls. Everything seems so removed from my life in Australia, then again the daily grind, the long hours and commutes and variable shift hours in casual work are the same here as there. Travel and English is possibly one way out. From the people around us in the coffee shop I imagine that what these girls have done, traveled alone to far away places would be regarded as bold. There is little in their demeanour which gives their intrepidness away. They have taken the English, which all in Japan learn at school and extended it to immersing themselves in foreign culture to speak better. And they have succeeded. What they now need is conversational practice, and thats what we do.
With coffee finished, we head out into the street and make our goodbyes, Yuka takes her little hamburger sample phone dangler and gives it to me, in case I don’t find the food sample shop in Tokyo. It’s a thoughtful gift. I am touched.

Advertisement