15 May, 2006

On Mother's Day

Yesterday, the second Sunday of May was Mother's Day in Japan like any other place in the world. I heard that the tradition originates in the States and so I understand very well that it's not something unique to Japan like most of the stuff I usually write here.

When I went into a small neighborhood goodies store, I found a little kid carefully looking at the dolls collection as to examine which one looked the best. The ultra-serious look on the kid's face was adoring. The kid must've been looking for the perfect gift for the happy lucky mama.

Come to think of it, ever since I left home years ago I don't think I've ever actually seen my own mom on mother's day. There were some years when I sent her gifts, but most of the times I think all I did was to either call her or give her an e-mail updating her with my current events and giving her a message of appreciation.

In my case, my younger brother decided to stay home with my parents so I'm not too worried about them now, but sometimes I worry their health conditions and all that cuz both of them own businesses.
But I can tell that they always care about me so much more than I worry about them, and it makes me feel like the care of the children to their parents is incomparable to the love of the parents to their children.

In the end, before I could decide what to send my mom as a gift, my mom sent me a box of vegitable juice (in case you didn't know, veggie juice is quite common in Japan) despite it's mother's day. For a moment I wondered why, but then I soon realized that the other day I talked to her over the phone that I haven't really cooked myself anything and have been eating out most of the time cuz I'm so busy.
I must say I felt ashamed, but at the same time appreciated her from the bottom of my heart. No one can beat my mom!

Not that I want to do something in return, but my mom's birthday is coming up next month so if you have any good ideas give me a holler :-)

No comments: