On the cheek kiss

I have mixed feelings about my mentor who was my also my sensei, my supervisor as well as the person who actually sent me to Japan. I admire him for his brightness (gosh...such an old guy with sharp memory he is), hate him for his high standard I felt I could never met, and eventually come to acceptance that I love him like a father (or grandfather in his viewpoint;p). He always tells me that I look alike his granddaughter, whom I believe is a total Japanese... now how can a Japanese kid looks like me?;)

Last Sunday I had lunch with him, our (used-to-be) program coordinator and other Hitotsubashi alumni. We had that kind of get-together before and I always did it with the feeling more like doing an assignment from school. On that Sunday, although I was the one doing the arrangement (still with a feeling like I'm doing an assignment), I myself expected no more than a dry chat for courtesy that one should does once in a while, which worths a lavish free lunch.

But when he entered the room and hugged and kissed me on the cheek I felt a different warm already. Maybe it was my state of feeling or it was real sincerity I usually missed when dealing with them, I don't know. And then the conversation flowed nicely.

When one senior annoyingly asked me when I will get married because Javanese families would not like an old girl to be their daughter in law, I said I wouldn't like that kind of family as my in law anyway. He supported me exactly in a way how I needed it, and in an way that shutted that senior up ;). And when he told me not to forget inviting him when I finally get married, I really felt his sincere care.

After two years of avoidance and restrain, I now feel a real nice-to-see him feeling eventually. He will be fully retired by the end of this month (March 2006). I'm glad that I have the chance to know him this well and can now really look forward to seeing him again in the future. He has become one of my good memory about Japan.