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Journey from a room with large bay windows (3)
Knowing I was taking pictures related with Japanese footsteps in Richmond, Vincent drove me to the Britannia Heritage Shipyard where the old buildings of Japanese fishermen was preserved. Surprisingly enough, almost all of the facilities in the yard were the Japanese related things and a young white lady sitting in front of computer in an old Japanese cottage couldn't answer to my questions about it.
At the end of the yard, there stood a weathered but huge workshop. Over the wire fence doors before the entrance, a white plump bearded guy was talking with the other white guy. Finding me, he said, "What can I help you?" "I am taking pictures. Visitors are not allowed to enter here?" "Well, come on in," saying he unlocked it.
"I'm searching for the footsteps of the Japanese fishermen. I'm from Japan." "Great! Come on, come on," he stepped forward putting off his tobacco abruptly. "Say, can you see a boat over there?," pointing at a farthest pier on Fraser River beside, "We restored that boat originally made by the Japanese. How cute!" Among aged wooden boats, it was sitting calmly with good old days' atmosphere.
Inside of the workshop was another old boat, several white people being absorbed in restoring it. "This is another Japanese boat. Do you want to see the engine?" He was so excited that I couldn't decline his offer. "Well, I'm impressed with your enthusiasm, but what is the aim of your preserving Japanese boats?" "Because we love it, we love old boats! That's all. You know, we are not working here, we're volunteering for our pleasure having our own jobs in different places."
I wondered if they knew the Japanese had been deprived of these boats by BC government. The Britannia Heritage Shipyard was consisted by the Japanese properties which were deprived by BC government; yes, they didn't return them to the owners after World War Two. Consequently, despite the fact that it is the Japanese Heritage Shipyard it has been being called the Britannia Heritage Shipyard and run by presumably British descendants; I've never seen Japanese descendants among them for several visits. Just out side of the yard, I only found a Japanese fisherman's statue, which praises the Japanese' contribution for BC, constructed not by BC government but by the descendants of the Japanese themselves!

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I wanted to search for what a Canadian identity is. Having called an Irish pub nearby, apparently an Irish descendant head said "this is a Canadian pub." However, I couldn't find anything original of Canada but Fish & Chips. At a so-called sport bar, I found people were so enthusiastic at a hockey game on huge TV screens. There were Curry restaurants, Greece, Korean, Chinese and kind of Japanese, and so on. As far as food was concerned, I could find no Canadian.
People say "We eat to live, not to live to eat." But this may not be true of Chinese people; you can easily tell they are living to eat when you accompanied them for eating out and watched the portion of the dishes used every ingredients available. Each Chinese in Richmond has each favourite restaurant and food shop, and Vincent once brought me a dim sum for breakfast. I thought there's no one enjoys good food more than he does. And then, when Tony's mother visited from Bangladesh he invited me to dinner at another Vincent's favourite restaurant. The scene of Indian people eating Chinese dishes with Chinese looked something symbolic of Richmond.

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by tetsu95jp | 2007-11-04 10:00 | 2.Richmond
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