This is another story about a kindness I experienced in Japan. (I have so many of these stories!)
As you might already know, when I lived in Texas, I never owned an umbrella. South Texas is a pretty dry (semi-arid) place. When it rains, it’s unusual enough to be kind of exciting. People pray for rain, especially people growing crops and people raising cattle. I remember the priest at church telling us all to pray together for rain sometimes. There’s no rainy season. And even when it does rain, it’s usually for a short time, and then the sun comes out again. When it rained and I had to walk somewhere (for example, from class to class in school, or from my car into a building) I didn‘t use an umbrella–I just ran! That’s what most people did.
My grandmother kept an umbrella in her car. I thought it was really cool and unusual. I would open and close it just a little bit as I sat in the backseat of her car. She would say, “Be careful with that! Don’t break it!” An umbrella was a rare and interesting toy for a child.
So, back to the kindness story. I used to work as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) at Hofu High School. (I was their first ALT.) I lived in Mitsuyoshi then, so I walked back and forth across Funai Bridge every day to get to the school and back home again. On this particular afternoon, it suddenly started raining as I was leaving the school to go home. I wasn’t too worried about getting wet. It was a warm day, and I was a Texas girl who didn’t mind getting wet in the rain. As I stood waiting to cross the street onto the bridge, I noticed a small white work truck (軽トラ) stopped just in front of me. The driver was waiting for a break in traffic so he could turn onto the bridge. He noticed me standing in the rain, and he must have felt sorry for this poor foreign girl getting drenched. He casually threw an umbrella out his truck window towards me and drove off. He was so cool! I didn’t know who he was. I wish I could have told him thank you.
If you know who this man was, can you please tell him thank you for me? This happened in 1989, and I still remember it almost every time I cross Funai Bridge.
Thank you, Umbrella Man!