Dear Mr. Wu Tsung Ming,

 

Autumn has arrived in Japan and the tree leaves are beginning to change colors. It has been a long time, but I believe you are in good health and full of life. As for me, I am busy at the YWCA and my “Otosan” is busy as usual (though he cut his workload by half starting this year). The busy work schedule helps us forget about our ages.

 

Enclosed in this letter are some photos that we took in February this year when we visited the Ina campus of the Faculty of Agriculture, Shinshu University, where you studied for three years. Here are the details of our visit.

 

We stayed overnight at an inn with a hot spring on the lake in Suwa, Nagano Prefecture. The next day, we went to Ina City on a local line train, stopping over at Okaya to try to find in vain the supermarket where you worked to learn first hand the distribution of farm products. During a taxi ride from Ina to the campus, there were several structures that reminded me of you while you were here. When I saw a gas station, I wondered whether you worked there part time on a night shift, saying that you could have quiet time for yourself for studying. When a small apartment building appeared in the field, I wondered if it was where you lived, growing vegetables in a patch of field owned by your landlord. I remember receiving carrots, green beans, and other vegetables from you.

 

The Ina campus is in a grove of pine trees. It has a two-story lecture hall, a library and some other structures where you must have visited frequently. The enclosed photos were taken in front of these structures and a guide board. In your eyes, you may see things that are not shown on the photos.

 

It was 13 years ago, May 1994, that I first met you during the “Exchange Students’ Mothers” event at Tokyo YWCA. You were a 25-year-old independent man with a 2-year stint in the military and 2-year job experience. You looked very pleased that you entered the agricultural department of the university and landed a job in Japan. Then came the death of your father the next year, and you had to return to Taiwan. We rushed to the Narita International Airport to see you off. As you were about to depart, you told us your dream of opening an organic restaurant one day. Do you remember?

 

When you came back to Japan on your honeymoon, you told us, “I make a living out of real estate, while trying to spread in Taiwan the idea of raw garbage recycling advocated by my Shinshu University professor. I’m volunteering with local people.” How is your recycling mission going?

 

The foliage in the Shinshu mountains that you looked at from the campus every day is turning colors as winter approaches. I’d very much like to show your wife around as one season ends and another one starts in Japan. You two are always welcome here. I look forward to seeing you again.

 

Sincerely yours,
Your “Japanese mother”

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. & Mrs. Higashihira hosted Mr. Ming on Tokyo YWCA home-stay program.