Sunflower 4 ~Friendship

This story is being continued from Sunflower 3

"Atsui desu. (It's hot.)"

I haven't heard Japanese for a while, and I certainly didn't expect to hear Japanese at that moment, so I didn't know what to say. 


I asked,

"Can you speak Japanese?" 

"Un Chotto dake. (Yeah, a little bit.)" 

He told me his girlfriend was Japanese, that was why he knew a little
bit of Japanese.  --- Who would know his wife will be Japanese at this point ... 


I was not interested in having boyfriend, relationship, romance, marriage,
anything at all at that time, so I remember I felt relieved when I heard that
he had a girlfriend.

In fact, at that time, I was programmed myself that it would be better off to
live rest of my life without a partner or family. Because I lost my parents in an early
age, so I thought, it would be more sad to lose loved ones than live alone in
entire life. I thought, I wouldn't lose loved ones if I didn't have one.
So,I better not love anyone .....

  Looking back, it was a silly fear based program that I made up for myself... 

Anyways, he had a girlfriend, I had no intention to have a boyfriend, so our conversation
went really casual.

"Why in the world are you live in this city? "

"I've been here since last summer as a gymnastics instructor. "

"So rare to see a Japanese in this town. Do you have any friend?"

"I know few people, but I don't have friend."

"What do you do in a day off?"

"I go to movie, bike riding, shopping mall, but not much."

"By yourself?"

"Yeah, by myself."

"What is your hobby?"

"I used to race windsurfing, playing piano, gymnastics, reading book.　But I don't have windsurfing gears, I don't have piano here, I can't find any Japanese book, so I don't do much."

"I do windsurfing, too! Do you ski?"

"I can ski, but I'm not good at it."

"I can take you skiing if you want to."

"Really? OK!"

I simply felt happy and thought
"I can go skiing with a Canadian in Canada.  How CANADA it is !!!" 

When we went to ski, he talked about his girlfriend for the entire time. (She was in Japan at that time, and they were in a distance relationship.)  I thought,
"How lucky she is to have a boyfriend who loves her so much!" 

That was the beginning of our friendship. He took me skiing few more times,
windsurfing, hiking and we built a healthy outdoor friendship, and it was
our time to go to Japan.    My contract as a gymnastics instructor was finished,
and he was planning to go to Japan to be with his girlfriend. 

I was so thankful for his hospitality and kindness by taking me to ski, windsurfing and made many fun Canadian memories.

To show my gratitude, I gave him a thank you card. 

I bought this card when I was in Japan, because I like sunflowers. I bought one for myself, and one for a special occasion when I would want to write a card, and 

it was time for this card to be sent out. 

I wrote my thankful feeling with my poor English and gave it to him.

(I am so embarrassed to read now, because it IS really a poor English !!! )

He looked at the card and said 

"This photo is really good for a screen printing. Do you want to make hand printing card with me? "

I didn't understand what is screen printing, but I understood that he wanted to

make a handmade card. So I said, OK ! 

Since then until both of us would be back to Japan, we met everyday for about 1 week. 

I visited his parent's T-shirt printing and trophy shop.  There were many equipment

for printing T-shirts and engraving plates for trophies.  Everything was new to me,

and it was fascinating !

I met his dad, and my first impression for him was,

"Oh my, he has a tatoo says 'MOTHER'. He must really respect his mom. This must

be a Canadian way to show the respect! How cool." 

 --- OK, tatto is a very rare thing to see in Japan. Even now, not so many people has tatto. 

I met his mom and my first impression was 

"She seems so kind. That's why he is so kind." 

They were talking about his niece when she went across Canada by hitch hiking when

she was about 13years old, and I thought 

"How wild!  Do all Canadians do hitch hiking? " 

Everything was so fascinating, so Canadian ! 

At that time, he was designing an engage ring for his girlfriend. So I was giving him

advice as a woman.  "I think this is better.  I think this makes her happier. " 

While we were working on the card, his family had planned a surprise good bye

party for his new journey to Japan.

He thought he was invited to a family dinner, but he found out 

that it was a surprise party for him by seeing all of his friend's cars all around 

the dinner venue.

He turned around and said,

"It's my surprise party. I am not going there."

I said,

"Don't you have to go to your won party? Wouldn't they be disappointed?" 

We ended up going to a lake.

I'm confessing to my family that it was me who spent time with him 

on the day of the surprise party day.  I'm sorry, please forgive me ! 

It was the most fun week of my entire 1 year in Canada. 

This is the card that we made together,

and by the time those cards were ready,

we were both ready to go to Japan.

I can not remember if he left first, or I left first, but I do remember I felt really

sad to say good bye to him.  I told him,

"We will be in Japan at the same time, so please come and visit 

Nagasaki with your girlfriend, it is a really beautiful town ! 

and said goodbye, and without a hug.  

Since we met, we both didn't care how we look, we didn't fake ourselves to be liked each other, I didn't put make ups on. I was in a simple T-shirt and jeans, no dresses.

It was such a casual friendship that we can both be "myself". 

in 2001, we got married :) This is the sunflower magic!

As you can see, my favourite sunflower flourished again in this situation. 

That is why I have "himawari" in my email.  Himawari means sunflower in Japanese.

Himawari brought Mari a happiness.  --- himawarimari

Anyways, thank you for reading this series of sunflower story, 

I hope you have enjoyed my journey with sunflower !

The end...