Facing alone

Author: Su Wei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: Short hair, delicate face with a simple and pure complexion. Her features are small and exquisite, with a small mouth always biting a V-shaped smile typical of Japanese women. A pair of old sneakers, a large backpack nearly as tall as her, including a sleeping bag. She spoke a Japanese-style English slightly worse than mine. She asked me first, "Are you traveling alone?" "Yes." "And you?" "Of course." This "of course" made both of us laugh. The only two yellow-skinned, black-haired people on the boat quickly became close friends. "I thought you were Japanese earlier and spoke to you in Japanese, but you didn’t hear?" "I heard, but I didn’t dare to embarrass myself with my poor Japanese." With the same skin color and shared characters (Chinese characters), we could only communicate in English, which wasn’t very smooth for either of us. "How long have you been traveling?" "Two years." "Two years? Alone?" "Of course." Again, this "of course," and she smiled slightly. "I’ve been to the U.S. and the U.K., and then traveled all over mainland Europe." "Are you a journalist?" "No, I was a senior civil servant in the government. In Japan, I watched too much TV about the U.S. and Europe. I didn’t want to just know the world through the TV, so I wanted to see it with my own eyes." "So you quit your job and traveled for two years?—Aren’t there Japanese tour groups everywhere in the U.S. and Europe?" "Most Japanese people are afraid when they hear they’re going to the U.S. or Europe because they can’t speak English well, so they always travel in groups. I felt that traveling with a group doesn’t let you experience much of the real thing, so I made up my mind to go to the U.S. first, stay there for almost a year to improve my English, and then travel around Europe. Later, I plan to see the whole world."—What an ambitious attitude! First, travel around the world to study English in the U.S., while studying English and working to save enough money to travel the world! "Traveling alone—especially for a girl—have you encountered any trouble?" "There’s too much trouble to list." "Pick a few important ones?" She mentioned a few incidents in the U.S., like being robbed, losing her wallet, and missing her passport. "How about Europe? Did it go smoothly?" "Something terrible happened in Italy just recently, but I don’t want to talk about it—it’s too embarrassing." "Then let’s talk about something else." She murmured a few Japanese words to me and steered the conversation toward her travels. At that moment, the ship docked at the second stop in the journey—Paros Island, closer to the port of Paleu. I invited her to go up to the deck to see the night view of the island. The lights were dim, with a few small white houses scattered around, nothing particularly special. I silently waited for something. When we returned to the cabin, sure enough, she finally opened up. "I’ll tell you that story again—please don’t laugh. Three days ago, in the evening, I was walking along the beach in Naples, Italy. Suddenly, two well-dressed men approached me and started talking to me in Italian. I didn’t understand, so I asked them where the nearest restaurant was in English. One of the men spoke a little English and had a somewhat gentlemanly demeanor. He asked me, 'Are you traveling alone? Italy is a fun place,