Thursday 18 October 2012

Ryoji and Debra

Ryoji-san and Debra-san have been married for forty years and appear to be a perfect Japanese couple. But she is not Japanese. So how did they meet?
Ryoji-san grew up in Otari, but although being a smart student was unable to go to university due to family finances. In Nagano there was a agricultural school run by a Christian organization. They offered scholarships to bright students and Ryoji-san was chosen to go. He excelled and was eventually chosen to go to school in Florida, U.S.A. At some point he will have gone to the church supporting these schools in Florida and here he met Debra-san.
Debra-san was the oldest child of eight and her father's job situation was somewhat migratory. At some point she also went to the church supporting Ryoji-san's schools and when they met, there must have been a few sparks.
Ryoji-san told Debra-san that they had a dairy cow in Nagano. Debra-san interpreted this to mean that Ryoji-san's family had a substantial daIry farm. Anyway she must have been one gutsy young lady of a mere 17 years when she married Ryoji-san age 25 in Florida. Later she emigrated from the U.S.A. and the Florida flatlands to live in the highlands of Japan. The dairy farm turned out to be one milking cow that lived in the house with the family, probably in an attached building. Seeing her in Otari it is obvious she has become well integrated into rural Japanese society.
In Otari their next door neighbour's were Norio-san and Kuniko-san for eight years.

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