A Mini Reunion: Time Traveling Back 30 Years
Hankyu Arashiyama Station was crowded with passengers, but I was able to immediately recognize the three women I had made a date with. They hadn’t changed a bit from the middle school girls I remembered. Pointing at each one, I called out their names, “Sayo, Naomi, and Hatabo.” Their eyes lit up. It had been 24 years since they had graduated from Doshisha Girls’ High School, where I had worked.
The opportunity for this reunion with the three of them came about when Hatabo learned that her friend Asuka had served as an interpreter for a Mongolian family who had visited Komurasaki An for a tea ceremony experience from Australia on October 14th. Hatabo contacted me saying, “I want to go to Komurasaki An too!” I was more than happy to have my former students visit. I replied immediately, “Of course! Let’s have some sukiyaki!”
Hatabo invited both Naomi, who lives in Osaka, and Sayo, who happened to be back at her parents’ home in Kyoto from Tokyo, making this mini-reunion a reality.
When I think back to when they were my students, I can’t help but feel the passage of time. Now, they’ve long since surpassed the age I was when I taught them. As I get older, I find myself longing for the past. Our mini-reunions transport me back to those days in an instant. I hope we can continue to have these get-togethers.
