Not Your Typical Tourist

A Life Between Two Countries, And All In Between

All In Between

Friendships on the traveling road: meeting new Japanese friends in Sri Lanka

Backpacking is definitely more rewarding and entertaining. It gives one more opportunity to meeting new friends and learning new culture.

Say hello to our new Japanese friends, Tomoe Urasaki and Hitomi Urasaki, who shared our super cute mini taxi from Dambulla to Kandy, Sri Lanka.

The mother-daughter pair (I initially thought they were friends or even sisters!) were our next room-neighbour at Avinka Holiday Home in Dambulla. As they were also heading towards Kandy, we agreed to share a taxi together, without knowing then that the taxi is of a mini size, without a boot space for luggage. As what Tomoe said, “it was a super cute mini taxi but gave us a super nice big memory!”

Tomoe and Hitomi’s luggage occupied the floor space in the back seat, so D had to keep his (the red backpack) and mine (the baby blue backpack) with him in the front seat. Bless him as always.

Our driver was alarmed seeing us in the morning with our bags *guilty*, but didn’t create much fuss so long that we are okay with the (lack of) space. We were more than okay to save the moolah, Rs 4,500 one way from Dambulla to Kandy divided by two. As an added bonus, we clicked very well too (given that we just met the night before!).  

 

Group photo including our driver (Photo credit: Tomoe Urasaki)

 

Tomoe is a woman on a mission: she’s an English teacher who strives to increase her countryman’s English proficiency. She also organizes Japanese Culture Appreciation session to promote the knowledge of Japanese culture, at her own cost, which I’ll write about it separately. She’s truly one amazing woman. It was my pleasure to make her acquaintance 👭.

Hitomi is no less amazing than her mum. I see her as a new breed of young people breaking-down generalisations and stereotypes about Japanese people and I bet that she will change the way we view Japanese women in the future. 

  

  

Tomoe also blogged about meeting us ….D and I were featured in a story in a Japanese blog! How cool is that 😎. 

http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/urara0115/diary/201503260001/

I google translated the story haha. Tomoe talked about me offering her a cup of coffee in the morning (our room does not include kettle), the trip, our cute mini taxi, and even the snacks we offered. And our kottu dinner and then tea back at their hotel in Kandy.

On the traveling road, we meet people and we shared travel experiences with them. The universe act in a strange way. Some we may meet again, and some we may never see them again, the bond of what we experienced will forever tie us together as friends. 


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