Friendship Store and Sino-Japan relationship

OK, the title is a bit misleading. About the only thing the above have in common is the word "friendship"! Anyway, this is about my weekend...

I’ve found my way to the famed “Friendship Store” on campus. I’ve heard about it several times, and one of the girls in my class was raving on about it. I had to find this place! It’s definitely very cool – almost a “godsend” to students living on campus. You can find almost everything here – it’s a little supermarket with lots of things a student living on campus would need - snacks to keep us going, instant noodles, cereals, water, wine, as well as little electrical things like plastic lamps, fans… There are also buckets, cleaning materials, stationery, computer supplies… There are of course other shops “near by”, off campus, at least they look close on the map, but in reality quite a long walk. There is also a very nice little fruit shop next door. How very convenient!

I spent this weekend with my parents. We attended a small get together of SGI members. Meetings are not allowed in China. However, every now and then, some SGI members get together for afternoon tea. It was great for me since I was able to make some new friends (and mum feels better since there are lots of very nice people to look after me!!). There is also a Singaporean girl starting a course at a nearby university not too far from where I am.

Mum, dad and I were also invited to a recital of Pres Ikeda’s poems at Beijing University next Saturday night. Apparently this year marks an important anniversary of Sino-Japan relationship (possibly 35th anniversary??). This recital is organised by the students of Beijing University, not by SGI.

I was quite surprised how much Pres Ikeda is respected in China. We watched a DVD of a documentary recently aired on TV in China about the friendship between Japan and China. The producers of the program initially interviewed someone from a non-profit organisation (not SGI) dedicated to the friendship between China and Japan. From there, they traced this relationship back to the Min-On Association, a cultural/arts exchange organisation originally set up by Pres Ikeda…and from there, the producers traced the China-Japan relationship back to Pres Ikeda’s meeting with Premier Zhou Enlai. I have heard about this meeting before, but had not realised the impact it had on the two countries’ relationship.

..So it was all very interesting, and all in mandarin. No, my mandarin is not that good yet! Perhaps I caught a few words! Fortunately, I had a very good translator. Hopefully I will get as good has her one day!