I received an email this morning that left me no choice but to blog about. As some of you may know, my mother and my aunt have been here in Japan, visiting their darling girl (more blogs re: moms visit to Japan coming soon). It was our last night together, and we’d just finished a day at the sumo wrestling games in Tokyo (ooobviously). We went out for dinner to a cute little hole in the wall italian restaurant somewhere in the middle of Tokyo, near Ueno. We were having a little difficulty with the menu,and the waiter was having a little difficulty explaining the italian menu to us.
Seeing that we were clearly at risk of ordering beef tongue or escargot, a woman sitting next to us with her daughter offered to help us out. She translated some menu items to ensure that we ordered a delicious dinner. Afterwards the five of us (my mom, aunt and I with her and her daughter) got to chit chatting about the usual questions that natives ask foreigners and foreigners ask natives and so on. I’ve had this conversation a million times, but they’re always refreshing. The duo were super cute, confident beautiful women who had travelled much and worked at places like health food stores. The daughter was engaged to be married so we talked about that as well.
When I pulled out my phone, Tomomi was delighted to see my ‘Tofu’ kai tei (cell phone) charm. “Oh! I love tofu!” Me too!!! I found my picture of all my tofus on my phone just to show her how much I did in fact love tofu. She then pulled out her cell phone to show me her picture of all her Tofus. …Only in Japan.
Anyways, needless to say it was a delightful dinner. We exchanged emails and seperated at the completion of our meals. My mom and my Aunt were also super pleased. They both agreed that this was a most excellent final memory of their trip, leaving them with a great impression of Japan and the Japanese people.
Today I got my first email from Tomomi. It talked about how happy she was that we all met and what a great time her and her mother had had at dinner. She also thanked me because her mother loves English conversation and it cheered her up. The reason her mother was down was that, her husband, Tomomi’s father, had died three months ago of cancer on that day, and they had just returned from visiting his grave. Tomomi informed me that her mother cries everyday, but that our meeting really cheered her up.
um. Holy Chicken Soup for the soul. That day was also Mothers day. Go universe.
