From Hakone With Sardines

Peach Abubakar-Quebral
QC, Philippines

July 11, 2017

Dear Peach,

I’m so glad you can take time out from work to make it here today. Here, take my hand. I want to show you #Hakone, in Japan. If you like Pirates of The Caribbean, you’ll love this boat that me and Robert (my boyfie for life) are on. The crew’s dressed up as buccaneers and one of them has been going around saying Konnichi wa to everybody. I was looking for Jacku Isuparru among them, but I guess it’s not his shift yet.

I don’t really know much about Hakone, except that it used to be a popular brand of sardines back home in Manila. So while the boat’s running through the emerald-green lake, I try looking for sardines, hoping they would be merrily swimming by. Unfortunately, that’s not happening, as there are no sardines. There’s actually no life in the water. It appears to be a man-made body of water. Or maybe it’s too deep that we can’t see the life inside. It’s really deep and scary! Yeah, that’s one lake you wouldn’t want to fall into, because you’ll have to be retrieved from Uranus if you do. (It’s called #LakeAshi by the way).

Since we’re on the subject of falling, please stop thinking about it. Stop falling into that abyss of worry. There are no sardines there. No one will travel to Uranus and back to get you. Elon Musk may try, but you got to become a French astrophysicist first. You can’t eat your worry or your doubt. Your credit card debt will be paid off, just remember to pay the minimum every month and add a little extra if you can. The projects you lost will be replaced by better ones. The friends and family who left… will still be gone. Now what? Let’s enjoy the light here now. Look at those clouds! They look like cutouts, don’t you think? And look at the shadows they cast on the verdant hills! Do you see that lone white house on top of that hill? Who do you think is living there? Some dude who’s into omorashi, bukkake or some strange form of hentai perhaps? Or maybe some housewife like you, also worrying about her future? Well, life simply goes on so let’s just enjoy the ride, shall we?

You don’t have to go back there right away. After this boat ride, we’ll take the bus going back to Mishima  first so you can see the amazing fare system they implement inside the bus. They have a TV inside that shows you how much you have to pay when you get off a particular stop. I still like the way Filipinos do it, though, when the driver simply shouts the correct amount back to you. And then you can rest for a while in my small apartment in Numazu-shi. It’s very quiet and it’s one of the more depressed areas in Japan, but I like this other face of Japan that’s not so well-known. Everyone who’s successful has a poor side, and Numazu-shi is one of Japan’s darker realities. I’ll tell you all about it another time, if you want to stay longer.

You can come here as often as you want, to take a break from your life. I know you’re happy there, but I also know you’re really tired of working your ass off and saying PA-Q to everybody who gives you a hard time. Today, let’s just sit back, enjoy the clouds, and wait for Jacku Isuparru to arrive soon, okay? The world is really a beautiful place, if you don’t think too much about it.

Love,

Peach Abubakar-Quebral
Hakone, Japan
March 4, 2016