A death and a warning

This is SURELY a bad day. The first thing that I read today ruined it...

After waking up, I noticed that I got (cell phone) mail. This early in the morning, it'd be usually from my family.

It wasn't.

It was from a guy from the English club (ESS... ow man... what a way to introduce them in the blog... No, I'll make this in another opportunity) saying that a member died on Nov 30th in a car accident...

Oh... S***!!!

Guess I still haven't realized the loss... She was surely one of the best members in the club. Not by her English level, but because of her interest in learning. Also, in one of the few conversations we had, I found out that she had a reason to choose the major she choose, to study English and other things... A dream. A big one that I wondered if would resist the pressures from society (especially the "after-marriage" pressure on women in Japan...), but I was looking forward to her realizing it. The first time we met, I thought she was almost the perfect stereotype of Japanese women: Kawaii (cute) and cheerful, but a little dependent and naive. Time proved that I was wrong about the bad characteristics. She surely has guts and works hard for what she wants... Really. To the point I respect her. A lot.

Writing style might be a little different. The fact and the music I'm listening make that. "Aeris's Theme" from FFVII Soundtrack. Can't think about a music I know that is more appropriate...

Ok, nonsense to write in the blog about it. Too sentimental for me and, besides, not proper. The "knowledge" topic of today is the cause of death.

Car accident.

She didn't have a car. I guess that she collided with one when cycling from, or to, the university. That's a thing that doesn't happen so often as it could, but more often than it should. Some streets here are damn small, or have bad sinalization and/or visibility. The picture below is from my neighbourhood and might give you an idea.

So, imagine this place with cars, pedestrians and people riding bikes... Note there're NO sidewalks! Dangerous to the very soul, isn't it? And it's also hard to notice when there's a car coming from a crossing, unless there's some kind of traffic light, which not always happen. At night? Even worse. And I go through places like that almost everyday.

Thinking about it, I had my close calls too. Especially in crossings you don't see until you're too close. The closest one happened when I was cycling to my Japanese class downtown (I live 6km far from it), a car was leaving a parking lot... and because of a building we couldn't see each other until our vehicles got almost a meter from each other. I managed to detour and only my bike hit the floor in the process, but I've heard worse stories that make me think I'm fortunate...

So, a warning for me (and for people who use bikes in Japan, if interested). Be more careful from now on when cycling here... Really. Got a message in the worst way about what might happen...

Yeah... pretty bad. But guess that, as this site mentions, I should change the background music to "Highwind" (FFVII Soundtrack). Quote below.

"I asked some Japanese friends about this later, and they said it was just the Japanese way of dealing with death. Life goes on. The victim wouldn't have wanted them to be sad all day over his death. They find comfort in returning to their everyday lives. It doesn't mean that the boy is forgotten, far from it. It's more like, a respect of the life he lead, by continuing to lead it. Do the Japanese have a better handle on death than we do? Much like many other aspects of this country, it was something I had a hard time understanding...but this time I got the feeling I didn't really need to understand it.

When I think back to that day, I remember the boy who could only stare off into space, and the girl who couldn't even pick herself up off the floor. But then I also remember them smiling and happy, laughing with friends, playing games and having fun. I like the latter memory much better. And I think that's what "Student A" would have wanted too. "

And hope she has a good journey... wherever it is. Hope it's to your beloved stars...

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Added on December 3rd:

I wanted to write some kind of small homage... Some sentences that most people might have heard, but I wanted to write it in Japanese (because the person is Japanese) and couldn't put myself into translating it into it, even though the main message isn't something hard to translate. I accidentally found a quote with the same meaning, so there is it.

｢誰かがその人のことをおぼえているかぎり、その人に本当の意味での死は訪れないんだ。だから、私は死なない。あなたたちがいる限り私は生き続ける。」
- ロゼット＝クリストファ　（クロノクルセイド）