Santi and Todos Los Santos

JAPAN — Even before our people could complete picking up whatever was left from the previous typhoons, Typhoon Santi is expected to hit several Luzon areas once again this weekend. We pray that Santi will not be as violent and as damaging as the previous typhoons.

Because of Santi, this year’s celebration of Todos Los Santos, All Saints’ Day as well as All Souls’ Day will definitely be different. If Santi is just as strong, the rains and winds will confine our people to stay at home. Many will make sure they are where they can save themselves. We pray that no one else will lose their homes, their possessions, especially their lives.

Dealers who have looked forward to profits for their candles, their flowers, among others. will also be praying hard that the heavens will instead blow Santi away and allow the sun to shine once more, especially for November 1 and 2.

Even drivers who awaited loads of passengers scheduled to return to their hometowns for these special days will have to be stay put lest they themselves get stranded by the floods that Santi may bring.

Already, flights and boat trips have been cancelled, preventing many from spending the weekends visiting their kin, those living as well as those who have moved on to join the Lord. We sincerely pray that Santi will spare our people, our country during this year’s Todos los Santos.

If the sun holds here in Japan, we are sure many Filipinos will flock to the churches to pray for their families in the Philippines, especially for those who have joined the Lord.

For those who were able to request for a day off for November 2, tomorrow will start a long four-day break that will end by November 3, Bunka no Hi or Culture Day, a Japanese national holiday.

Like our people, many Japanese here will take to the road for family reunions or trips to special places. There will be those who will fly out of the country for a short tour elsewhere. Many will catch up on their sleep and will prefer to spend a more relaxed long weekend.

Mr. and Mrs. Masahiro Nakamura of Fukuoka have a different style of celebrating Culture Day. Every year, they make it a point to invite all those they have trained to be caregivers of Japanese elderly for a reunion in their home.

Most of these caregivers are Filipino women who have Japanese spouses and children. Mr. and Mrs. Nakamura share the dream of these women to shift from their former entertainer image to a more socially accepted status. These women who are now long-term or permanent residents dream to be more socially accepted here, especially for the sake of their children, formerly known as Japinos but now referred to as JFCs (Japanese-Filipino children).

The women themselves are now considered as zainichis (long-term residents in Japan). The term used to be applied only to the long-term residents among the Chinese and the Koreans. Being included among the zainichis mean the Filipinos, especially the women, have stayed long in Japan, most arriving since the 70s to work as entertainers.

As we wrote in a previous article, Mr. and Mrs. Nakamura are also living the dream of their son who sadly passed away before he could realize his goal of assisting women from Asia find good, decent jobs here in Japan. Rather than allow their grief to darken their days, the Nakamura couple decided to fulfill the dream of their son by extending assistance by providing Japanese language training to foreign women, including our own women. They may have lost their son but they gained more children among those they have assisted.

Even long after their weeks of training end, the Nakamura couple hosts gatherings so they can follow-up on their "wards" to check if they are ok or not.

When they realized that only a few of their trained caregivers were hired by Japanese agencies and homes, they decided to put up their own elderly home not only to provide much needed employment to the zainichi Filipinos but to show that our women can be trusted to take very good care of the Japanese elderly.

November 3 has become a red-letter day as well for those who have been trained and cared for by the Nakamura couple who continue to practice real and sincere cultural acceptance not only during on this special day of culture. They have assisted so many women of various cultures in their own simple but inspiring way. Their tireless efforts are compensated by the presence of former grateful and smiling trainees who come and visit them with their spouses and children every November 3, a real day of culture in the welcoming home of the Nakamuras.

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