Back in the early 90s I lived in Japan working as an English teacher. My next door neighbor and I spent the better part of that first year (92) trying to figure each other out. In my infinite wisdom (read none) I would often go for a five mile run before work each day. Work started at around 12:00 Noon and I was usually "on the road" by 9:00 AM - about the hottest and most humid times you could do anything.
Every morning I would see Obara-San, my neighbor, and shout "Ohayo-gozaimasu!" to him and wave as I ran past. And every morning he would just look at me puzzled as I ran by, silent. About a year into this exercise in cross-cultural communication, he stopped me as I was running and we actually had a fairly lengthy conversation, wherein he explained that he and his wife were a little worried about my "stability" as I was going out and doing heavy exercise at the worst possible time of the day for it. You live and you learn.
This Seiko is a dead-on ringer for the Seiko that Obara-San had.
I put it on today thinking about neighbors, friends, and that far away town of Kasukabe - which from all reports has grown dramatically since then - and I suspect that they finally got some decent English teachers in as well! And I suspect that Obara-san is still there, lending a helping hand to the misguided Gaijin teachers.
Every morning I would see Obara-San, my neighbor, and shout "Ohayo-gozaimasu!" to him and wave as I ran past. And every morning he would just look at me puzzled as I ran by, silent. About a year into this exercise in cross-cultural communication, he stopped me as I was running and we actually had a fairly lengthy conversation, wherein he explained that he and his wife were a little worried about my "stability" as I was going out and doing heavy exercise at the worst possible time of the day for it. You live and you learn.
This Seiko is a dead-on ringer for the Seiko that Obara-San had.
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