Last night Kuniko and I traveled to Sakai city in the south part of the greater metropolitan area of Osaka, to meet the wife of an old friend from India.
Ashika and her friend Geeta were wrapping up a week-long tour of Japan with a group, and had decided to stay an extra day to explore some of Japan at their own pace. We met them in Sakai near their hotel and took them to a nearby restaurant to eat traditional Japanese food and talk about their trip, their family, and their experiences in India as well as other places – they were both quite well-traveled.
I first met Ashika’s husband Vishnu 27 years ago when I moved to Fresno to prepare to attend courses for my bachelor’s degree in enology (winemaking). I had arrived before the start of the semester to settle in and get to know the area. Since it was between terms there weren’t many students around. The university had one dormitory open to house people that wanted to stay during the holiday break, and so I got a room there rather than spending too much on a hotel. The dormitory housed a handful of students, including international students who didn’t plan on flying all the way back to their home countries.
Vishnu was living just down the hall from my room, and it turned out that he was also part of the winemaking program so we already had a starting basis for our friendship. I soon discovered that there wasn’t a lot going on in Fresno, and thanks to Vishnu I was introduced to other members of the enology program and had a chance to see more than I would have otherwise.
Since he was ahead of me in the program he graduated ahead of me and went back to India, and since this was sometime in the early 90’s it was a little hard to keep in touch. But Vishnu managed it, calling me all the way from India to wish me a happy birthday, and he even sent me a picture of him and his new wife dressed in traditional Indian clothing at their wedding.
With the advent of Facebook communication was much easier, and it was through that medium that Kuniko and I organized a trip to India to visit Vishnu in 2011. Vishnu and his wife Ashika hosted us at their home in Bangalore for a few days and showed us around their rapidly growing city. We met their kids for the first time and really enjoyed our stay thanks to them.
So it was with great pleasure that we could sort of return the favor, at least a little, by having dinner with Ashika before she flew home. I was getting over a cold so I wasn’t at the top of my game but we still had good conversations and they were brave enough to try some foods that even we don’t normally eat very often. Ashika had brought a handmade bag filled with masala for our cooking, and we sent them back with a little box of goodies made in Akashi, where we live.
As I write this Ashika and Geeta are flying back home via Malaysia with their bags packed with souvenirs from the trip. We really enjoyed seeing Ashika again and we’re hoping that we can also get Vishnu to Japan sometime soon. We’re thinking how fun it would be to visit them again in India, or maybe meet them in another country nearby and travel together.
