ボーアタルジ 久子 Boa Tarde, Hisako！（Hello, Hisako！）

Part IV (2-1) Returned to Japan; (2-2) Residence was found

2-1【Returned to Japan】　　　

Hisako arrived at Narita Airport on May 14, 1994. It was 5 months after she had return to Brazil.

"Suzuki-san, we are here. Welcome home!" I had come to meet her at the airport with a child and a granddaughter. Hisako had rested her Brazilian house with the beloved family and came back to Japan as she had promised.

She had bought a Brazilian doll for my granddaughter, which she said Mayumi had chosen. It was a doll I have never seen. I asked if Hisako bought with borrowed money. "No, it is OK, Tomi-san. I had secured enough pin money." We laughed each other. I was grad that our reunion had started well. From the country where the inflation was progressing more than ever, she bought a lot of souvenirs to people to whom she owed a favor.

Soon after she had returned to Japan (May 1994) a new currency had been introduced in Brazil. Hisako phoned to Brazil and asked her second son to explain simply to her what it was about. But he said that he had no idea. It is unbelievable in Japan that the currency should undergo the changes nine times in one's lifetime. Hisako thought that Japan was a peaceful country as the daily prices of goods on the shelf of the market kept stable.

But as for her she had to work for the time being until the worker's compensation was paid. Besides she had to earn the living expense for Kazuo's wife and children in Brazil. She needed to search for a residence and a job urgently.

2-2【Residence was found】

Fortunately, a residence was found soon. She could live in a dormitory of an orthopedic and gastronomical clinic for a time being until its planned renovation.

The clinic, Kubota Gastronomical Clinic, in Adachi Ward was operated by Dr. Kiyoshi Kubota, who had graduated from the Seventh National High School and Tokyo University (Faculty of Medicine), which was an elite course. He was one of the uncles of my husband. He was the most reliable member of our family, whom the author worked for at a time. It was a hard but pleasant experience for me. The dormitory was equipped with a 'Goemon-Buro' * which was rare in a central part of Tokyo at that time. (*Goemon-buro: iron bathtub heated by burning woods from beneath with a floating wooden lid which is pushed under the water by the bather. The famous robber named Goemon Ishikawa was executed by boiling water (in some other documents 'in oil') in such a bathtub together with his child (August 23, 1593) by then ruler Hideyoshi Toyotomi, hence Goemon-buro).

On holidays the uncle used to trim the garden trees wearing a rough style of underwear. He also chopped and split firewood. The sound of hatchet 'Pakk-a-a-n' remains in my ears. He was an excellent doctor, but he had a foolish side. One day he was cutting twigs with an electric saw he had cut off one of his left fingers by mistake. Then he soon picked it up and ran to the nearest university clinic where thankfully it was re-attached. I have heard this story several times from him.

To Hisako, he talked as if they were father and daughter.

(To be continued)