Japan 1

Maputo, 12 March 2011

It’s been three years now that Youri lived in Japan and I never once visited him. In the first year, he didn’t want visitors – needed time to get familiarized with the society and the language. In the second year, I was moving to Mozambique as a new adventure in my life and could not afford to spend money on a trip to Japan. In the third year, I had to go several times to Holland – for Youri and his new love, for my mother who got sick and eventually died.

Meanwhile I’ve been having these regular, long conversations with my prince about everything that was happening to him in Japan and the development of his understanding of Japanese culture – the positive and negative sides, and how he used all these experiences consciously into building his own personality. Viva Skype!

And now, in the last weeks of his Japan life, I will finally visit him – making all his stories and friends part of my life. Wow, I couldn’t be more excited. Except for this dark shadow hanging over my trip: the huge earthquake and ensuing tsunami that hit the country tragically. I’m really scared for my friends in Japan and of course for the whole population about the nuclear fall-out of the plants hit by the quake. It IS a really scary situation and I guess it’ll take weeks before any clear information will become public.

As a detox to anxiety I’m listening to Hiromi’s music and re-reading Haruki Murakami (both great inspirations for Youri to go to Japan), I try to forget the tragedy and want to get the most out of those mere two weeks of being in Japan. But I’m torn.
I’ll be using my old Maputo blog again, because everything that will happen is linked to my Maputo experience – the basis of my life right now.