92 Year-Old Shares His Life In Japan Since 1960

hey guys hi I'm Takashi from Japan so today I came to one of the coldest city in Japan saporo by the way have you watched this video I was born and raised in Tokyo Japan my family's been living in Japan for the past three generations so that means my all four of my grandparents moved to Japan in the 50s and 60s so now I'm going to interview his grandfather who has been in Japan since 1960 I'm so excited to interview someone like him who knows 60s Japan 70s Japan 80s Japan okay let's get started thank you for your time could you introduce your background when did you come to Japan hello everybody I'm Richard Goodall and I came to Japan from New Zealand from New Zealand if you've heard of it 63 years ago 1960 what age did you I was 27 I was born on a farm a Deary Farm in New Zealand I married when I was still in New Zealand the most beautiful girl in the world at the time and I got two children before I came to Japan one of them is right here in the house with us now uh her name is Christine she's 63 she was a baby of 4 months when we came to Japan and I was 27 and I had a son who was already 2 years old you came to Japan at age of 27 that's right 1960 how and why did you come to Japan I came by boat it was the cheapest way to travel in those days New Zealand is so small yeah that we don't have many boats coming to New Zealand and so we went by plane as far as Australia and then caught a boat and landed at Yokohama how long did it take about 3 weeks oh yeah how was the trip do you still remember there were a lot of Australian people on board and uh an Australian couple said to us the Japanese will eat your babies I had a son of two but my wife and I weren't very much worried about that and on the boat so that we paid less money we had a cabin with no window all we had was the sea but uh that was good for making our babies go to sleep then it was beautiful traveling in the daytime going through Indonesia and seeing all the beautiful islands and Hong Kong I love Hong Kong Kong and we I think we had three days there and came to cor did your parents come to Japan to see you no when I told my parents that I was going to become a missionary and go to Japan my mother said uh but you've got to know the Bible my father he was angry and he said I made you an accountant so that you would manage our subdivision of our farm land and I threw up my arms and I didn't know what to say to him we had always done everything he said I was married by this time so I didn't have to live with my father and we just made our own way to Japan when we wanted to but we had no farewill because nobody sent us off we only got the visa to enter Japan 12 hours before our plane left for Australia and so on the way to the airport I went to the travel agent I got him to give me the tickets how we did it is a miracle of God I don't know how we got through Immigration and Customs like which Visa at the time missionary Visa oh they have missionary Visa I didn't know that they have missionary Visa here in Japan yes they did I know that okay oh Japan is very good like that very welcoming their problem was not because we were a missionaries but they said you got no salary that's a problem but my senior missionary lady in Tokyo went to the hore Department of justice and she put pressure on them one day and she said please give visas to the good alls they said yes and she sent the cable gram and she put the numbers of the Visas in the cablegram when we came through the customs and the immigration and the boarding on the plane we just gave them the numbers we couldn't give them any visas no passports they were 600 km away waiting for the stamps we got out of New Zealand dealing with no passports no visas nothing but we got away I think at the time not many foreign people in Japan and now Japan became popular like you know past 10 20 years but at the time like it's it's right after the war right so like what brought you to Japan well I became a Christian and got baptized when I was 17 in 1950 and I read in a magazine about New Zealand man who came to Japan as a missionary oh and so I thought hm I'm going to Japan as a missionary and 10 years later I came but I had a family already and a job and everything but uh I lived happily ever after so you came to Japan where did you live at first we had a senior missionary whom I never met and he built a church in Tokyo and he built a little apartment at the back of the chur church and he got a bad back had to go back to Ireland and he said uh by letter you can live in my house so we lived in expensive Tokyo without paying much rent all of your family yes with two children that's right what was 1960s Japan like especially Tokyo it's hard to tell you briefly but uh I didn't have any demands that I wanted to make of Japan so I'd tell you just a little about my first impressions the trains were always full they had people to push the passengers onto the trains in Tokyo same as now yeah we loved it and my first two years were the happiest years of my life really yes and the easiest years just studying Japanese every day my wife had two children so she went to Japanese Language School 3 days a week and I went 5 days a week we went in the Ginza and I had my daughter and I pick a back her in the Ginza like a Japanese person that that was a great experience we traveled everywhere we were members of the Church of course and all the people were very kind to us and helped us in the middle of the night in Shinjuku I lived in Shinjuku shinachi was my station I heard a noise a very strange noise every night I thought oh that's something religious but it's not Christian and I found out later what it was it was soan he was telling everybody that he has so to sell at midnight same same as Ramen same as sweet potatoes B I love sweet potatoes and I eat Nat you like n yes I like it more than my wife does and my my wife is Japanese because I married again oh I didn't know oh really when did you 13 years ago after my first wife died of course her name is Yuko and she's from asahikawa hok yes and she was a member of my church so at the time I assume there are not many foreign people especially Western people in the 60s Japan even in Tokyo how was it like did you have any friends from abroad not many what friends we did have were all missionaries there were some an American couple who were very good to us invited us to the home for Christmas but we never felt isolated or lonely the Japanese people were very friendly very nice I remember a doctor and not not a medical doctor but a a engineer I think he was he invited us to his home and we enjoyed a meal at his house we didn't feel bad at not having many English-speaking people to uh hang out with did you expect to live in Japan this such a long time when you came to Japan at first I had no idea how long we would be here did you come to Japan temporary or indein oh no until we died oh really and my wife died here uh about 10 years ago uh so where did you go after Tokyo two years Japanese language study but then we finished language and went to kizawa somebody gave us a house to live in for one month and I asked God please where and the answer came back you work with the New Zealand missionaries who are now living in hak in hoko I sent a cablegram from kizawa to New Zealand because my senior missionaries were in New Zealand that time and I said can we come to hak and work with you and when he went to the post office in New Zealand to send the cable gram he asked God if I'm to say yes to the good olds would you please have one red car outside the post office and when he got to the post office there wasn't one car there there were two and they were red so he said in his answer in his cablegram come come so we came to hak and we worked with him for about one or two years and then started a new church ourselves in sa you've been in Japan 60 years two two years in Tokyo 58 years in Hokkaido yes 61 it is in Hokkaido wow it's a long time but happy long time before we continue interviews I want to share the best way to learn Japanese from my perspective that's prei today's video sponsor PRI is userfriendly language learning platform that connects you directly with native speakers and experienced teachers it's designed to make language learning more interactive and personal instead of just repeating phrases you will engage in real conversation and learn cultural nuances making your stud sessions both enjoyable and effective I personally believe that consistency is key when learning languages many people struggle because they don't stick with it regularly however pre makes it easier to stay committed with over, 1500 Japanese tutors who are not only experienced in teaching but also know how to keep you motivated you can find a tutor who can fit your schedule and helps you reach your learning goals what I think really efficient about prey is that it offers oneon-one interactions ensuring you get attention and guidance needed to improve Japanese skill effectively you can receive 50% discount on the first lesson appy by clicking the link in the description let's start learning Japanese by signning up pry and who knows once you became fluent enough maybe I can interview you okay let's get back to interviews you raise your kids children in Japan as a non-japanese person right could you share your experience raising kids here money talks a lot and very loudly when it came time for us to educate our children we could see that the Japanese system was very good M and almost free and we had no objection to sending our children to Japanese schools and they went right through but none of them have been to University in Japan so your children some of them from Japan right born in Japan mostly mostly and their native language are Japanese yes my wife and I always spoke English to our children and they learned Japanese without paying any money just by talking to their friends and they had many friends so life was very good for us because we had our children with us after they became adults they said thank you for bringing them up in Japan they're very happy that we did some of my children not all of them but some of them have married Japanese people and have children they call halves they don't like that and I have grandchildren with German blood Japanese and New Zealand and I think there's one more oh well Australian but that's the same as New Zealand one with them I interviewed Joshua oh yes I've seen it thank yeah do you think it's hard to raise your kids as Bingo my wife made recordings of English stories I can hear her saying Turn the Page Turn the Page and so she taught them a little English like that every five or six years we took them back to New Zealand and so they heard real English also even though you've been in Japan whole life but you go back and forth many times what my wife got cancer and she had an operation in New Zealand and the doctor said come back next year come back two years time and so we were able to go back quite often and when I got the job part-time teaching at a Japanese University they paid me good money and so there was no problem with the money going back to New Zealand what about your early life in Japan you used to go back often or we didn't go back often at first we were young and happy uh and healthy so we didn't have to go back to New Zealand very much in the early days when we got a little older I think it was very nice for my wife to go back to New Zealand often to see her sisters her parents and me to see my parents and other people so God was very kind to us and he let us go back often so I think many people wonder like how did you actually manage to stay in Japan cuz many foreigners many non-japanese people comeing to Japan Liv in Japan but they need to leave because of the Visa but you be able to live in Japan 60 years is it like always missionary Visa or you got permanent residency we used to change our visas every 3 years but they just simply extended it put their stamp on and that was all 30 or 40 years ago we applied for permanent Visa was it easy at the time compared to now very easy yeah I don't know why at someone who lives in Japan 60 years what do you like and you don't like about Japan I don't like shiokara but I'm happy because the Japanese people don't like it either they've never made me eat it or some like it I think or I like skaki I had skaki yesterday and I like um H oh yes but I don't like the price of of hotti so I just look at them but sometimes people give me hotti if they want me to translate something for them they don't give me money for translating it they give me a gift maybe they give me hotas okay what about the people what about people yeah what do you like about Japanese people and then what's something you don't understand about Japanese people Japanese people I like their politeness I'm used to it sometimes it GRS I'm sure and one thing I don't like is taking off your shoes at the door in Tokyo I lived in a western style house okay so you used to wear shoes at home yes but my senior missionary from New Zealand he came to visit me he lived in hak but he came to visit me and he looked at my genan and he ran his finger down it and he said you've been coming in here with your shoes on so I had to take my shoes off ever after that even in Tokyo even in a western style house but I'm still not good at it what do you means he in you you must you must get used to it oh yes oh yes yes I don't like it you still you still don't like it when I go out into my porch yeah I look around the neighborhood to see if there's anybody looking if I want to leave my slippers on when I go into the porch but um I shouldn't do that what about what about Society Japan as a country anything you particularly like or dislike I like snow because it's nice color and it covers up the dirt and you can play with it and I get exercise taking it to the river I get on well with my neighbors I have good neighbors here good neighbors there good neighbor on this side and I go to the neighborhood association I'm a member oh really yeah and and they accept me perfectly they're very nice people treat you as local same as other people they accept me perfectly and if I would become the k sure I think they would say yes yes so we talk a little bit about Japanese people how Japanese people see non-japanese people especially westerns do you think it has changed I think the situation hasn't changed very much but I think modern Japanese people accept uh foreign people very easily more easily now not just people in Tokyo I think everywhere is about the same and if we speak Japanese to them they are very happy I think Japanese people if we just spoke one word they would still be a bit frightened now yeah I I know I mean people say that Japanese people kind of afraid scared of foreigners I think it's just a language barrier myself I may be wrong but that's true cuz you speak Japanese so that's why people accept you as a local you know I've heard a lots of story like you know when foreign people speak Japanese but Japanese people try to answer in English even though they speak Japanese fluently like does it happen to you still when you meet new people yes sometimes but it's never with a bad feeling they feel oh this Foreigner I want him to relax so I will speak to him in English so I never have a problem with it what are the differences between Hokkaido and the rest of Japan it's very different I assume every year in the winter I remember oh winter is cold I I forget in the summer God helps me to forget and also food the bill suppor bill like food is all famous right like popular oh yes I think so potatoes from tokachi cheese cheese yes New Zealand is a cheese country milk and cheese at number one oh same as hokido yes I'm very much at home so what about people let's say people in Osaka are quite you know famous for being friend and stuff like that but what about hok I think they are different from horo people they are probably gunko obstinate because of the cold they're always fighting the cold of course there is a hooko bin the huo accent but I only know a few of those I don't know them all when Japanese people speak among themselves I don't catch it very much even if they speak H jungo I can't catch it I think that's true even for me if I meet like Elders here like you know Countryside I think I I couldn't understand much of it yeah even as a Japanese person yeah I think so you speak Japanese you went to language school yeah when you first came to Japan right that's the only thing you did or I taught myself a little I was an accountant in New Zealand and I have a qualification to do bansa auditing we call it in English on in New Zealand I used to go to Tokyo to do the auditing for Christian book shop when I went to Tokyo it took me 24 hours from hak by train oh never fly too much money but there's no sh at the time now but in those days was by boat to alore so I would write the KI on the train but not for 24 hours yeah you need some sleep yeah and I still do it oh you practice kanji still now I do I can that's quite impressive yeah I can read them but I can't remember how to write them no I think I I will find difficult time to write in country as well cuz I don't write anymore I can read but don't need to write technically but anyway so could you share what's the important thing in learning Japanese in Japanese [Music] for oh when is the last time you went back to New Zealand 6 years ago oh quite recent it's a long time when is the last time you went outside of hokido in April I went to a wedding my wife's nephew had his wedding at a beautiful hotel in Shino you still go back to Tokyo sometimes sometimes it must be it must be totally different yes 60 years later yeah yeah I like Tokyo I like it because I know it I remember there are many places I've never been to in Tokyo but I like it I'm home there I'm happy do you think Japan became poor you know that 70s Japan 80s Japan which was the best time of Japan economically let me tell you this when I came to Japan 63 years ago one New Zealand dollar was 54 Yen but Japan got stronger and stronger and that 504 Yen went away down to 42 yes 42 so it was not very good being a New Zealander for us then but I don't remember I don't remember being financially poor it was 60 n for a long time but now it's 87 Yen it's gone way up very strong so I think this is a very good time for new zealanders come here and other people to come to Japan and that's why people come here right now like so many tourists even in hokido there are so many tourist saporo do you find the 70s 80s Japan has more like energy as a country I'm not an economist I'm an accountant but of course I do think about money and costs and value and exchange rates when I came to Japan I got one big shock among others of course and that was that people go to work and they seem to be grateful that somebody employed them they never asked for a holiday some of them never had one holiday until they had worked for several months and then they would get a holiday and maybe that was one day a week but in New Zealand right from when I was a boy 1 and A2 days holiday and then about 50 years or 60 70 years ago we have two days holiday every week nobody works hard they have social security and they pay big tax Social Security tax but uh they don't work hard they don't seem to the Japanese people in the 60s worked their skin off they worked so hard and they never demanded a holiday they never asked when they got work how much their wages would be they just took whatever wages they were given I was shocked that's true I never realized that actually Japanese people are try for the job without knowing how much yeah that's that's that's how be is that still true yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah maybe one because now it's hard to get a job yeah that's why like they cannot choose basically yeah any company that accept you you want to go maybe that's why last question what's it like living in Japan since 1960s I think the big thing that I've experienced is fulfillment I think I've been much happier than I would have been in New Zealand if I stayed in New Zealand I would have had a good job a good income a batch best saw oh we call it a batch a batch by the sea and a boat and weekend holidays now I never have a holiday at the weekends I I holiday whenever I want to and sometimes I go back to New Zealand for 6 months for 6 months the first time 10 months I was free that's nice nobody gave me a salary so I can do what I like so if you stayed in New Zealand you have a good holidays you know good income and stuff like that right but you stayed in Japan how was it much more satisfaction in Japan and you can't buy it with money obviously you came to Japan when the country was not popular overseas is now it is what do you think about it I never think about it I read the headlines in the newspaper or on television and so I give I think about some things but I don't really have a big opinion of it we have to have money we have to work I listen to Mr kishida Prime Minister yeah but my wife doesn't like him is there anything you want to say at the end welcome to Japan Jaan it might be an exaggeration but it's the highest Halls of human happiness you won't regret coming to Japan and I hope you have a good time don't worry about anything bad happening and you listen to what my friend Takashi says I'll see you in Japan come and see me thank you so much okay thank you for watching so far how was it that was interesting I really enjoying talking with him it was such a nice experience something has changed something hasn't changed yet but this is my first time to visit saporo this city is so beautiful I highly recommend visiting here if you come to Japan in winter you will see something that you never see in Tokyo okay anyway thank you for watching if you like this video click like button please subscribe to my channel if you have any question you want me to ask people in Japan please leave a comment too see you next time

Channel: TAKASHii from Japan

Views: 268,798

Keywords:

Id: FRlUHY7cFpg

Length: 28min 19sec (1699 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2024