越川隆文

Koshikawa Takafumi

Koshikawa is my oldest friend, not in age, but in the number of years that I have known him. While I was still in Tokyo we parted paths: he got married, and I moved to Hong Kong.

Time and distance have weakened significantly by ability to speak in Japanese, but more recently I have spent an enormous amount of time refreshing my Japanese reading and writing skills. But, to what end?

Koshikawa-san is Japanese, and I am this alien gaijin who is now more alien than ever before. And why, because I live in Seattle on the east side of the Pacific, and he lives in Uozu on the east side of the Japan Sea on the other side of Japan!

What am I to do? I have no money to move to Japan, and I am constantly rejected by his countrymen when I seek employment.

In today's world of the global internet being turned away by your oldest friend for not living next door is painful.