Random Memories Trois

- Growing up, we had a Japanese neighbor. He was a businessman and he was a very amiable and friendly man. He was just an all-around good guy. My dad loves Japan and its culture, its food and its history, so they really hit it off. Our Japanese neighbor was also very generous. He loved to buy food and books and knickknacks for us when he went shopping here and in Japan. He had a wife but we never saw her because he traveled to the Philippines alone. I forget what his business was all about, though. He did tell us stories about his wife and he had a young son who sometimes came with him on these business trips. He also had a baby girl but she stayed with his wife in Japan. I remember one summer it was his son Takayasu's birthday. He took our family to the beach because we were their only friends here. We had a fun time. He spoke in fragmented English but I guess a language barrier does not matter in friendship. I wonder how and where they are now.

- I was quite the performer when I was a little girl. I sang during reunions and performed dance numbers at parties. I remember I sang Edelweiss with my tita on guitar during an annual Christmas party for the kids on my grandparents' farm.

- I spent lazy, hazy summers as a child at my maternal grandparents' home in Iloilo. We'd spend the WHOLE summer there, and I whiled away the time with my cousins playing hide-and-seek among the piled sacks of rice grains stored below the ancestral house, eating fresh fruits and telling stories. We'd also visit my paternal grandparents' house in Jordan, Guimaras where we'd stay for several days. Guimaras was just a fifteen-minute boat ride from Iloilo City. In Jordan, my grand dad, when he was alive, would tell us stories, draw for us and take us boating through rivers that had mangroves in it. We'd stop somewhere grassy and eat lunch under the coconut trees and amidst all the greenery. It was peaceful there but eerily quiet with only the forest sounds to keep us company.

- My little brother used to have Buzz Lightyear shorts. They were his absolute favorite pair. I hope this isn't incriminating information.

- I love short stories. One of my best friends, Maize, made me read one titled "Noah's Walls" at a sleepover at her place when we were college. Together with another one of our best friends, Kmae, we were crying after because it was sweet and endearing and sad and hopeful all at the same time.

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