Part-Time Job Interview

 In the 1980s, I was a university student. One day I had an interview for a part-time job. There were several interviewers. One of them was my mother’s old friend. I hadn’t known that he was working there, and he didn’t recognize me. I thought it would be rude for me to ignore him. So I said, “Hi. I’m the son of your friend!” He seemed shocked. He expressed surprise like an old-style comedian. I thought he was overreacting.

 Today, I am as old as he was then. I could be a job interviewer. And the child of one of my friends could come to me for a job interview. If that happened to me, I would be as surprised as an old-style comedian. Friends’ children grow up too fast!

 On the day of my interview, I told the other interviewers stories about my mother’s friend. They were stories that I had heard from my mother. It was a nightmare for him.

 On second thought, I could never be an interviewer!

Picture by maimu

 

Six Doctors

 In 1988, I used to enjoy riding a racing bicycle. One day, I fell hard. I was brought to a hospital.

 Because I had hit my head, I had to get an MRI scan. For the first time in my life, I saw an MRI scanner. It felt like I was in a recording studio that had a fish bowl. The doctor was in the fish bowl, manipulating the MRI scanner. I lay on a movable board.

 It was taking a very long time to get the test done. So I looked at the fish bowl again. There were three doctors in it, and they are arguing very seriously. I started to worry about my condition. I waited for a very long time, anxiously watching the fish bowl again. This time, there were six doctors, and they were almost fighting. I heard some of their words. They said, “There’s nothing we can do about it…”

 That was when I realized I must be dying. The facility was a relatively big general hospital, and its six doctors could do nothing to help me. My condition must be hopelessly bad. I was eighteen years old at the time: too young to die. As I waited for the announcement of my cruel fate, I cried my eyes out.

 A few minutes later, one of the doctors came out of the fish bowl and said,

“We’re sorry about this. The machine was broken. Please wait for more a few minutes.”

 OMG! The MRI machine was broken. Of course, there was nothing the six medical doctors could do about it!

 After a week, I was discharged from the hospital.

Photo by　Zinkevych

Breaking the Ice

 

 In May 1996, I was a graduate student. One day, I got the opportunity to work for an academic conference as a front desk clerk. Based on my experience, the job of a front desk clerk at a conference was easier than that of a theater clerk: We didn’t have to handle tickets or cash. We had a list of the conference participants. Then we would ask the guests for their names and check the list.

 It so happened that the girl next to me at the front desk was tremendously beautiful! Apparently, she was an undergraduate student. That was unusual as graduate students typically worked for the conference. If she was an undergraduate, perhaps she was not only beautiful but also highly intelligent. She had to be an excellent student or probably wanted to be a scholar. But she was not the talkative type, and I couldn’t be talkative, not with an attractive lady. So we worked silently. But I really wanted to break the ice.

 As I reviewed the list, I came across a surname that I didn’t know how to read. I had never seen such unusual surname before. A Japanese surname typically consists of two letters, like mine: Miura（三浦）. But that surname comprised four letters. I had never seen a four-letter surname before. That gave me an idea: I would ask her what the right way to read the surname was. I was sure most people couldn’t read it. So we would discuss its pronunciation. It could be a nice ice-breaker.

I asked, “Could you tell me how we pronounce this surname?”

She immediately answered, “I will handle this.” Then she stopped talking, and we were silent again.

 I could not understand why she reacted that way. Perhaps she figured out how to pronounce the surname immediately? She was an intelligent lady. But, if she had figured out what the answer was, why hadn’t she shared it with me?

　A few days later, I found out why she had reacted like that. The difficult surname was her father’s name. In those days, she was single. So it was also her surname. She was working for the conference because her father was a member of the association. Furthermore, he was the one of the most famous professors in the society. So it truly was shameful that I was a graduate student but didn’t know him and actually asked his daughter how to read their family name.

 Later, I saw her at university a few times, but I couldn’t say hello because I was too embarrassed.

 As for her father, the professor, he became even more famous as the years went by. Sometimes I watch him on TV now. He is one of the most influential people in Japan.

 Every time I see him on TV, I think to myself, “He might have been my father-in-law if I’d had more guts with his daughter.”

Photo by　xiangtao