I have a new friend named Takuya Goto, he is Japanese. Actually, he is a friend of my boss, Om Elcid. Until we met and spent time together, and so then we became friend. He is a
really nice and polite guy.
Takuya is a researcher in Mitshubishi Research Institute, Inc., a Japan think thank.
At the time he came to our office, I
thought that maybe this guy won't be so close with us. Yes, sometimes
people just came to our office, spent just a little time and a little talk,
then went back to their own businesses. And that's okay, we all have our own business.
But I think Takuya is meant to
be our good friend. He came in the right time, when we have lot of free time, when it was holiday! Well, most people won't be busy during holidays (except my boss, he is a work addict), so we there was a chance for us to get along together.
First we met in IRGSC office, we talked
about some formal issues, things like our research agendas, our responsibilities in
office, and so on. But then when time flowed, we started to talk about our personal life,
and of course in English. That was a good way of practicing English :p.
So this is the story about my
conversation with Takuya. Everyone is personally unique. This time I want
to share the uniqueness of Takuya.
Well, he is 29 years old, working
in a research institute in Tokyo, Japan. This is the second time he came to Kupang. The first time he
came here was 7 years ago. Means that he already visited Indonesia when he was
22 years old. Yes, quite young. Yes, my age right now. No, I mean now I am close to 23. Sigh.
Wow. Such a young age to start a
journey to the world. Oh my God I really want to be like him. Now I
am near 23 but there is no other country that I have visited but stuck in
Indonesia.
He took his undergraduate study
in Tokyo, then had a course in UK, and then took master degree in Tokyo. I dont
know about any other formal educations that he attended .
He is so polite and pretty quiet. But when I threw him some questions, he began to tell us stories :)
He said that Kupang now has changed from the first time he was here 7 years ago. He saw that now, Kupang has more
cars, more buildings, and the youngsters are more fashionable. Hehehe. Indonesia has changed so much in economy; more
Indonesian became wealthy. These are simple things from our conversation but I love his findings. Sometimes it’s good to be a friend of the researchers. They are more critical and thorough.
He stated that religion is a complicated matter when we was trying to explain about the difference between catholic and protestant. And he was pretty
surprised that here in NTT or in Indonesia, religion is something that we ‘must know’ about someone. That
religion is like any other general information such as age and place of living.
Maybe in Japan religion is something private, and not for share to the people that we
just met. And its not so polite to ask about religion and believe in Japan.
He alone is registered as buddhist, but in fact he is not a believer.
I asked him to tell us more about
Japan, and he asked me back, which one I wanted to know: about the positive or negative sides? I
said both.
He mentioned the positive sides were that people in Japan is very polite, very on time, and they tend to plan everything, for example, they have already know what they are going to do in 5 minutes or one hour later and so on.
Japan is also a very clean place. The negative side he told us was the work hours is
very long in Japan. They work very hard, especially those who are in the
consultant institutions like his office. He goes to the office every morning at 8 or
8.13 AM, and go back home at 11 or 12 PM. Oh my. I think I can't live that evil style work hours.
Wow, they used to work hard and
for them it is normal. They do this 5 days in a week. I asked him, how about
lunch or dinner. He answered that for lunch they could just go to buy a
mealbox, then bring it to eat at the office. For dinner, they can go to the
restaurant just for few minutes, and then go back to work. Or even they dont go to eat
until they finished work.
Well, today is a holiday for
international labor day (1 May 2014). Some laborers in Indonesia were shouting for
their work hours to be reduced, or their income to be raised. Whereas in Japan,
they work like crazy. If we calculated it, then they might work for 65 hours a
week! When will they sleep or hanging out with friends or exercise or relax? I
can't imagine. Compared to them, I’m not more than a lazy
snail sleepyhead.
Oh yes, no compare. Continue with
Takuya. He said that Tokyo is a place to work, not for holiday. He said that the tourist destinations are Kyoto and Hokkaido. I think these places are very familiar to my
brain since I was a Japan comic enthusiast. Hihi
For Takuya, Japanese women is
braver than Japanese men. This statement came from a research finding that
there were more women who travelled abroad from Japan, compared to the Japanese men that were more
likely to stayed in Japan. Thank you, researcher!
I asked him how much it cost for
one person normal meal, then he said it depends on what place. But normally it
costs 8 to 10 US$. Then I told him, in Kupang, that amount of money you can feed
4 people or even more!
I’m so amazed that he was started to
be a researcher from a very young age, and because of being a researcher, he
has been traveling around the world to do the research agendas.
About his personality, he is very
polite, and really-really calm. He is a good listener, and I see that he loves to
try something new. He swam in the pool with the advance calmness. This is very
true. If comparing is allowed just for this case, He swam like an elegant swan
with his head over the surface of water reflecting calmness, while I swam like
a crazy chicken that was pursued by the hungry crocodiles. hahaha
I remember the question that he
asked me about which place that I would like to go.
I replied him that i want to go
to as much places as I can go. He responded my answer with a big smile.
Thank you universe for brought me to
meet Takuya. Such an amazing friend.
I hope that life maybe somehow reunite us
someday. It would be a great story!
This photo may help you to imagine the crazy chicken (left) and the elegant swan (right). Thank you :D
