Portrait

It is interesting how roads cross. I remember the first time that I met Tatsuya Ogawa, it was during the orientation week and as every other student I had to register my computer at the school.  Without exaggerating I was somewhat surprised when the Japanese person who assisted me also started to use some simple phrases in Swedish. It was an unimaginable thought and a unreal feeling to travel around the world and there meet a Japanese person who at the time actually spoke better Swedish then I spoke Japanese.

We started talking(in English I might say) and he introduced himself as Tatsuya and turned out to be my first personal connection with the country where I had arrived. Nowadays i consider him to be a good friend of mine. Tatsuya is a 21 year old Japanese student on the way of educating himself to work within tourism and is planning on going to Iceland as an exchange student. The most striking thing about him is he's good humour and how obvious it is that he enjoys learning different languages and to meet new people.

During my stay here I have not yet met any other Japanese student who actually can speak fluent English and make basic sentences in Finnish, Swedish, and German.   

I choose a picture of him that I took at one of the times we were hanging out at the Hirakata bar Seven gods.
I think that the location for the picture suited Tatsuya as a person very well. Even though he prefers kareoke to bars the seven god felt more like a location that represented Tatsuya better.
Just as the bar calls itself the fifth Seminar House and is eager to connect with international students so is Tatsuya. He is my friend and many times he has turned out to be my goto guy if and when I need assistance in any form in understanding the Japanese society.