This day I met with a new customer at a local hotel,
"Nogami President Hotel" for business discussion.
He came to know me through an old friend of mine
who now lives and works for a housing company as a
director. This friend and I were on the baseball team
of our junior high school, 飯塚三中.
This friend kindly introduced me to him as a translator.
He asked me to translate English-written
certificate of marriage and that of birth of his new wife into Japanese.
I got surprised to hear his story.
This gentleman is 59 now and married a Philipino this summer
who is 20!!!!!! He lost his previous wife, of course Japanese wife
two years ago. She suffered from disease to death.
A long time after her death, this gentleman went to Philippines
and stayed there for two months. He met his current wife there.
The new wife had worked at a local restaurant managed by
Japanese entrepreneur as a waitress and talked to him
saying that she wanted to go to Japan or learn Japanese
language. Then, they began to date and married later.
The wife's mother is 35 years old, so she gave birth to this
lady at the age of 14. Her father is 42 years old.
It's also surprising to me that the wife's mother is the same
age as his daughter, and younger than me!!!
They have 39 years difference in age!!! 39!!
This gentleman has a son and a daughter, both of them
are married now and have their own families.
At first, his daughter was strongly ageist her father's new
marriage, but gave in to this marriage.
It may be true that a normal foreigner doesn't mind difference in age
between him/her and his/her spouse(配偶者).
But what a difference there is between the gentleman and his new wife.
In the evening, I had an English lesson with one of my students.
We practiced Japanese - English translation as a good training of
speaking English.
This coming Saturday, I will turn 40.
The age of 40 requires me not to affected by desires, says
Confucius.
It will be tough for me.
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ken