Japan: Papa Goes To Work By Train

In May 2003, when I first went to Japan to attend Ah Yu and Emi's wedding ceremony, they were renting an apartment in Tokyo. Later, they moved to Chiba-ken (Prefecture) which was less costly but still in the Greater Area of Tokyo. Since more than three years ago, they are living in their own house in Moriya city in Ibaraki-ken outside the Metropolitan area.

Emi had resigned from her job. So Ah Yu drove alone to work in Tokyo, which took him two hours for a single trip. Even his colleagues were surprised that he lived so far from the working place. I remember a former colleague Chuang also told me that she used to spend that much time travelling from her house in Muar to the Alor Gajah campus by car. I asked her how she had managed to do that for years. She answered, "At first I felt tired. So I just got into the car, not thinking about the distance. Slowly it became a routine!" To me it was unimaginable. Even when I was stuck in the traffic for only a few minutes while driving to the city campus once or twice a week for the past three semesters, I already found the time long.

Tsukuba express was opened half a year after they were settled down in Moriya. Since, Ah Yu abandoned his car most of the time and hopped into the train in which he could sleep or do some reading all the way to his company.

When we were there during his working days, he was the first one to take a shower, get changed and have breakfast. At seven o'clock, he was leaving the house to walk four minutes to the Moriya station to take the train. If Yuri was already awake, he would hold Ah Yu tightly and try not to let him go until Ah Yu succeeded in comforting his son.

Ah Yu once wrote in an email:
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I remember that when I was small, Dad was going to banquet every night, and I always didn't let him go. Then Dad would give me some money. But I don't think this method can be effective with a toddler.
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Of course it would not work with Yuri. Sometimes, Ah Yu just handed the crying child to Emi and quickly walked away. Anyway, a couple of minutes after Yuri was separated from his father, he was already happily playing with his toys...

As their residential area was just next to the tracks, we could see and hear a train passing almost every five minutes. Yuri loved to imitate the noise. When he stood at the window, pointed outside and excitedly uttered the "gatang gotong, gatang gotong..." sound, we knew he was referring to the long vehicle.

If the weather was good, he would be allowed to stand outside the house with our presence. Then he would wave at the train energetically and said, "Bye-bye!"

None of those trains was carrying his father back to the house. Yuri was not disappointed, for he knew that Ah Yu, unlike the typical Japanese men, still loved his precious son much more than his job.