Her name is Tomo, short for Tomomi. She is a Japanese volunteer (JICA) who will be in Tonga for two years. It’s Japan’s equivalent to US Peace Corps. She is assigned to work on HIV/AIDS education with the youth office where I work.
The photo is of one of our many sleep overs. Tomo, Diane and Latai in Tomo's room.
I have learned a few things about Japan so far which I will share with you now.
Tomo is from Nagoya which is the third largest city in Japan, about 6 hours from Tokyo by car and 2 hours by bullet train. Wow, wouldn’t a bullet train from LA to SF be great? Tomo says it travels about 300 miles per hour at maximum speed. There are 125 million people in Japan. (300 million in the US) Tomo tells me there is some diversity in the major cities but nothing like what she hears about the US major cities. There is a Toyota factory near Nagoya where a lot of Brazilians and South Americans live near and work.
Anyway, I am going to have a good time learning a little bit of Japanese while with Tomo and together we will learn Tongan. I really enjoy these cultural exchanges, except for when they are annoying. But, I know this cultural exchange with Tomo will be very enjoyable.
The only thing weird thing that I have encountered so far from living with Tomo is the toilet seat sweater. I am not talking about the toilet lid, but the seat. It has a sweater on it. Different, but it is warm. I just never occurred to me to put something on the toilet seat to make it warm. I heard about heated toilet seats in Japan now I know from what those evolved.
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