So I had decided to work some overtime on my free Saturday as my boss has informed me that a little bit of extra effort would make sure I would get the bonus for that month, so I did. I worked about 5 hours together with one other colleague of mine and apparently secured the bonus! I got home and did my usual other duties: put my clothes in the washing machine and the drier, do the dishes and cooked a fresh meal. Now as my Saturday was a bit dull and my Sunday later too I went on Facebook to see if there was anything Japan-themed in Belfast. Unfortunately, there was not much to be found and so I just checked the international student page of the university: I found a Japanese person! In My Dutch directness I decided I would just send them a message with a formal greeting. I did! It read something along the lines of: “I’m sorry to send you this very abrupt message. Please do me the honour of letting me introduce myself. My name is Jelmer, I am together with you in the same group. I have been wanting to speak Japanese lately but have very few opportunities to do so, which is why I am sending you this message of contact. Is there any chance we could maybe meet in the student cafe once?
I would very much like to hear from local Japanese what they think of living in Northern-Ireland. Once again, forgive me for my rudeness and thank you for hearing my story.”
Well, this story does not give off that much of a “creep-vibe” right?! So I waited and the next day I actually received a genuine response! He very much wanted to meet and hope he would do as the representation of a Japanese person! He was interested in sharing stories! So we set a date for the 5th of April and agreed we would have dinner together. I let him choose the venue and we actually met up!
We had an amazing night! and he had even brought one of his friends along! So on the left, you see Maki and on the right you see Aki! ( no jokes! ) Aki is a 26-year old guy who is studying here. First to do a pre-master and then to roll into a business master. Maki is 20 and on exchange from international relations department of Kobe University.
The whole evening was so much fun! We quickly bonded over things we were missing from Japan and the conversation ended up with me and Aki discussing the Japanese Educational system and what we both thought they could improve on it! It was such a pleasant evening and filled with such interesting discussions! Where we were supposed to just have a quick meal together at 6:30, we actually ended up staying in the bar for quite a long time and I walked them home only to get to my own home around midnight. We exchanged LINE and promised each other we would stay in touch and meet up again soon!
Here I was, I had just made two new Japanese friends and we had an amazing night talking about our great experiences in Northern-Ireland and our even better memories of Japan :)!
FullJelmerAlchemist 