Meet an old friend 10 years after

12 Sep. 2006 Helsinki



It was foggy morning when I went out on the deck, but as the boat got closer to Helsinki, the fog was clearing. The white cathedral was coming into sight. There was an hour time difference, so I set my watch ahead. So we were supposed to be arriving at Helsinki at 10am local time.

I was waiting for the tram to the city center, but it didn’t come for a while and there was a long queue. It seemed not too far to the city, so I decided to walk. It was not far at all actually. In 15 minutes, I arrived at the harbor near the city center. There was a square where markets were held. I walked across the main street then soon I got to the hotel for that night. Helsinki was rather small town than I thought.

At the hotel room, I was supposed to meet my friend from Japan at 4pm. She is my old friend and we hadn’t met each other for over 10 or more years. We just had been exchanging a couple of e-mails in a year. We were not very close for those 10 years, though, through the e-mails, I knew that she had traveled to Finland a couple of times. So I asked her where I should go. Then I also added:
Why don't you come to Finland with me?
It was not a serious invitation because I knew it might be hard to take a vacation so sudden (yes, it is hard to take a week vacation in Japanese society…that was why I wanted to travel between jobs), but…she made it! Well-done!

Our itinerary was pretty tight in Finland, so I didn’t have enough time to wander around. I ran around marimekko factory shop, Sibelius Park and Tamppeliaukio Church, then got back to the hotel. It was weird to see my friend whom I hadn’t seen for a long time, at a small old hotel room in Helsinki. I was grinning with that funny feeling when I knocked on the door. She opened it. I wouldn’t say ‘ not at all’, but she didn’t look so different. Even after long years and not having been very close, I didn’t feel that we had been apart for such a long time. That is why we tried to keep in touch somehow, even just by exchanging some greetings.

There is a Japanese movie called ‘Kamome-Shokudo (Seagull Diner)’ shot in Finland. That is a story about 3 Japanese ladies who opened a Japanese style diner in Helsinki. Actually I haven’t watched it because I was not in Japan, but I really want to watch it as soon as possible. Anyway, that diner in the film is in Helsinki, so we decided to have dinner there. Unfortunately the diner had already closed when we arrived. So we walked around the town, had dinner over everlasting chatting. Oh well, still we had lots of things to talk, but we had to take 5:30am flight to Lapland on the next day – that meant we had to get up at 3am! – so we went to bed early.