"Good things coincide with important things" the Japanese say. The night before, Wisnu refused to go to bed early. He insisted on watching the DVD eventhough the lights were off and he was left alone in front of the computer. On the other side of coin actually we admire his effort on being persistence :) Somehow he ended up crying and running to the bedroom at about 10.30 pm.
It was difficult to wake him up at 9.00. Ibu was buying the time by taking Akira to shower and tidying up the bedroom. At last, Wisnu opened his eyes as he was seated on his stroller. He slouched on it waiting for Ibu locking up the room and putting Akira on his sling.
To go to Ward Office is not really hard but quite challenging. It is in Maita --a subway station away from our dorm. The thing is there is no elevator nor escalator in Maita. Besides, it is quite traumatic for Wisnu to see the station as we used to put him to the nursery school when Ibu was giving birth to Akira and Aji had to go to campus. We could say Wisnu recognized the station and is always terrified by the idea that we are going to take him there again and leave him alone.
The subway to Maita was not crowded but Ibu chose to stand up so that Wisnu could hold her hands while sitting on the stroller. Ibu whispered, " Wisnu, you'll have to get off from your stroller in Maita and climb up the stairs" but it was not easy to make Wisnu understand the situation. Perhaps he was still so sleepy to walk that he cried out loud when he was asked to climb up the stairs. He sat on the floor and screamed. Ibu was at a loss but suddenly there was this middle-aged Japanese lady who approached us and lent a hand. She carried Wisnu on her arms compassionately and mumbled some Japanese words which sound really empathic and soothing for Wisnu. We managed to get to the ticket gate and Ibu was searching for the ticket but it was nowhere to find. The station officer noticed this and it made ibu felt even more nervous. Gosh. The lady who was carrying Wisnu was patiently waiting outside the gate with Wisnu and it made Ibu started sweating. Desperately Ibu said to the officer: "Sumimasen (excuse me), I lost my ticket, gomenasai (I'm sorry)". Ibu was ready to pay another 200 yen for the lost ticket but surprisingly the officer smiled and said "Daijofu, dozo" (that's Ok, please). What?? We could get away without ticket???
Still stunned by the officer, Ibu approached the lady who helped us. She was talking to herself. It seemed that she was in doubt whether she had to take the left or right exit. Ibu said," Gomenasai, we are going to the ward office for vaccination" with all gestures she could figure out in the effort to say that it's allright if the lady would put Wisnu down. The lady did not say anything but looked around her. It seemed that she was going to a different direction but she was trying to get someone else to help us. Then came two other ladies and this first lady said in Japanese something like ," Goemenasai, blablabla kodomo(child) blabala okasan(mother) blabla, ideska (is it ok?)". Before ibu could ask what on earth she was trying to say, the first lady gave Wisnu to those ladies. One of them carried Wisnu and the other one skillfully took the stroller from Ibu's hand . Strangers to us yet so helpful!!! They tried to make a conversation and ibu could only guess their questions about Akira which needs the fixed answer such as 'sankai getsu' (three months old) and "otoko" (a baby boy, not girl) and " arigato" when they say "Kawaiiii" (cute).
We parted at the exit gate. They seemed to get used to the situation of helping strangers like us as they obviously did not show any negative body language nor comments.
When we got to the Ward office we found out that the vaccination would be at 13.30. Oops!!! It means we had to wait about two and half hours. To kill the time, Ibu asked about the possibility for Wisnu to receive free vacination too on the same day but the officers there do not speak English much. Yet, the midwife was about to take us to the 5th floor to get some info but we bumped into a man who turns out to be the person in charge for the vaccination . Then it was the man who took us up and talked to the lady officer about Wisnu's case. We got the medical record for Wisnu and they even tried to call the Kanagawa-ku ward office to come up with the information to do with the vaccination as soon as we told them that we were going to move from Minami-ku to Kanagawa-ku this weekend. They did it wholeheartedy eventhough it was 10 past 12 at noon when they should have had to take their lunch break.
In short, Akira got his BCG vaccination inspite of the language barrier. He is such as brave baby boy that he cried very little during the vaccination. When waiting for the vaccination shot to get dry, we were supposed to sit and listen to the explanation from the paramedics about the A to Z of the BCG vaccination. Wisnu started to cry as he was hungry, sleepy and bored. The lady who was giving presentation with the power point realized that Ibu needed help. She stopped talking for awhile to carried wisnu on her arms. After that she continued to give presentation with Wisnu on her arms. Amazing !!! She seemed to be happy of being able to help and asked :daijavu??" several times to make sure Ibu could manage everything. The best thing is she was prepared to give more help .
Going out with a baby and a toddler in Japan and was helped by stangers really left deep impression on us. These people who have helped us through today remind us of the other days when there have been many other Japanese who helped us here. They are the kindest people we meet in the friendliest country. We are the lucky ones , indeed.
1 comment:
Wisnu to Akira no Okasan wa sugoii ne! Minna, ima, daijobu datta?
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