Mr.Oumi

Keiichi Iwasaki

21年前

I arrived Lhasa Capital city of Tibet.

and I found an internet shop after a long time, went inside and

“Can I borrow your power supply?”

and when I was talking to the shopkeeper in writing…
From the rear.

“I can’t get online!”

A loud voice was heard complaining.

The words came straight into my head, so I thought,

“What?”

I thought, it’s Japanese.

When I turn around, a man around 60 years old is sitting at the computer complaining.

The clerk, who was speaking in writing, turns to me and says

“What does he say?”

He gave me a look that said.

I guess he thought I could communicate better with him after I had been writing earlier. On paper.

“He says he can’t connect to the internet”

I wrote.

“Are you Japanese?”

I ask to him.

Of course he must be Japanese because he was complaining in Japanese, but it was a conversation starter.

It was the first time in a month that I had used Japanese other than to talk to myself.

“Yes, that’s right.”

came the polite reply. It’s quite different from when I was complaining earlier.

“Are you unable to connect to the internet?”

I asked again.

“Yes, I had my own computer hooked up, but I can’t get it to connect to the internet in any way”

That being said, and looking again, the computer in front of him , is a small laptop.

He said,

“Whenever you complain, always say it out loud, then it doesn’t matter what you say.”

Uncle said. That’s why he was shouting in Japanese. I thought,

“That’s a bit absurd”,

but I didn’t say it out loud. Apparently, I couldn’t connect in this shop, because I wanted to use my own computer.

‘Would you like to try another shop?”

I made a suggestion.

“Well, that’s very helpful”

I both left the shop. While looking for the next shop,

I told the standard story of a traveller I didn’t know when we met.

‘”Where are you from? Where are you headed?”

“From Japan, I took a boat into Shanghai, and from here I’m on my way to Nepal”

He said.

“I was just on my way to Nepal”

We’re in this together.”
He said he had not yet obtained a visa for Nepal, so we agreed that we would go to the Nepalese Embassy together tomorrow.

The next day, on the way to the Nepal Embassy, I asked his name

“My name is Oumi”

He said.