Sneaking into the development site of Phu Quoc's Tom Island~ (Written by Ho)

Enjoying the trip to Phu Quoc Island

At local eateries, there are always tons of kittens and puppies, and they come pouncing and playing all over you. Classic Vietnam! We arrived by riding the world's longest over-water cable car — Vietnam's new paradise, Tom Island (Sun World Hon Thom), a pool with giant attractions that's incredibly popular. On the day we visited, it was bustling with Vietnamese and foreign tourists alike. You could even hear the cheerful "wheee!" and "yay!" cries coming from outside. It looked SO much fun~~~ But being a couple in our late forties, we chose strolling over the pool. Right next to the pool was a site that caught our eye... an untouched stretch of land still very much under development... Craftsmen were busy working away at the site, and even a place like that — this being Vietnam — you can just march right in. In Japan, a work site would be draped in tarps, with "No Entry" signboards and all... but this is Vietnam. The. Great. Open! It's a "go right ahead~" kind of vibe. As the two of us pressed on down the red-earth road... there sat, all alone, a gorilla statue that will probably be put on display someday.

The bricks are laid out here and there in a scattered way, and it gives the feeling of "Ah, so the foundation work starts from here~". And when I look over to the right, the place where they're hammering away — clang, clang, clang — under construction is...

A café, maybe? I wonder what it's going to be? It feels like they cleared out a huge, wide-open lot, and while doing the utility (water, gas, electric) work, they went ahead and put up the building first — that kind of vibe. The craftsmen on site are constantly coming and going on their motorbikes.

That's how vast the place is—gazing at the red-clay construction site, I let my imagination run... I wonder what could possibly be built here~~~. I can't picture the finished result at all!! After passing through the vast red-clay construction site, right by the sea, I came upon a tiny, tiny village. It's an open, wonderfully nature-filled place, but at the entrance to the main street, a proper COVID-prevention signboard had been firmly set up.

A signboard grander than the homes around it — I thought this was a place with no connection to it, but they're really thorough about it... There's also a small market, with a greengrocer, a fishmonger, and a hardware store that has everything you could need. It's no different from Ho Chi Minh City, though... Ah〜〜〜 the symbol of Vietnam, a little chair perched there,

I've never seen anything this size and this low before~~~ so cute. Behind the scenes of modern buildings being constructed, there's ordinary local life. A place with a wild, rugged vitality that may change and disappear from now on. I got a glimpse of a part of Thom Island. This was my 2020 year-end and New Year's. And then, once the new year began, back to regular work — the radio program I'm involved in producing: NHK Radio "Genichiro Takahashi's Flying Classroom," Friday nights from 9:05 PM.

The New Year special is only available until today... You can listen to it as many times as you like on the Rajiru Rajiru "Kikinogashi (Catch-up)" service. Over at author Genichiro Takahashi's place, poet Hiromi Ito, manga artist Mari Yamazaki, and author Mikako Brady all gathered together for a lively, chatty get-together. There's also a conversation with Jakucho Setouchi, who turns 100 by the traditional Japanese age count. It was such a laugh-out-loud program for the first time in a while, so I'm letting you know about it. https://www.nhk.or.jp/radio/ondemand/detail.html?p=6324_01 Even so, the coronavirus is raging fiercely. On January 7th, Tokyo reported over 2,400 new cases, and every time I watch the news from Japan it makes me heartsick. (That was also the day things got really out of hand in Washington, DC, in America.) Somehow... I can only hope that days when we can spend our time in peace will come soon. Emigrant Life Ranking