A neighbor friend

Last night, getting bored with the rubber stamped QSOs on CW, I was listening 80m SSB. There were
a few couples of JAs chatting leisurely. I feel I came back to the good old days there. Not so many guys there, however, as decades ago. When I knew 3535KHz often used by Koreans was vacant, I decided calling one of my old friends, Lee, HL2DC, on that frequency. No schedule with him. He had given me a phone call at home a few days ago when I was absent there. I was wondering what made him call me. I knew Lee often got on that hang out spot chewing rag with his friends.

After calling him a few times, Shin, HL5FHR, broke in me. He told Lee had been there some time ago but seemed to have gone QRT then. In a min. or two, Shin has given me a call again telling me that he had made a phone call of long distance, 400km away, to Lee. Lee answered to Shin he would come on in a min.

Lee has come on that frequency soon. I thanked to Shin a lot for his kindness. Lee told he had wondered when I would visit Korea. I have told him I would visit there with my wife for many times. I let him know I would retire in the end of this month and may visit Korea very soon as promised years ago.

I first met Lee when both of us were teen age boys. Almost 45 years ago or so. He was a student at a university in Pusan with a call of HL9DC while I was studying mechanical engineering at a college. I don't believe we have chatted much on CW. But I still remember exchanging pictures each other. A handsome tall guy was there.

While I was a med student and was serving residency, as often told before, I was not on the air at all. Coming back on the air, I ran across with Lee. He was an engineer of a big electrical company. Soon, he came to stay in Tokyo as personell of that company in Tokyo branch. He used to visit our family for two times with his wife and two children. Since he spoke pretty good japanese, we could enjoy conversation much. I felt we share the same characters, which may mean our ancestors were not very distant each other. Intimacy, modesty or chyness. Maybe, I am not typical for that but these may be characteristic for the people in Eastern Asia.

In our QSO last night, I knew his son, now aged 37 years, had one child, that is, a grandchild for Lee. His son and his family are living in Tokyo as Lee used to years ago. Lee has turned 64 years for now and enjoys his retirement with his wife and three dogs near to Seoul. I surely feel we have shared the same thing in our lives together even if we lived apart. The same age and the same area. I told him we would like to visit Korea not too long from now. We should see in eye ball in addition to many QSOs on the air.

In Japan, right winged hooligans speak ill of our neighbor countries including Korea. They won't consider the history between those countries and Japan. It is not very easy for us to overcome the historical problems. We should know the people themselves before being indulged in selfish and monologous propaganda. I am happy to have such a nice friend in our neighbor country.