In the small town of Obuse,

known for producing chestnut related products,

lies nothing special but chestnuts.

Populated mostly by farmers, everything is simplistic here. Down to the very retro charcoal heater for warming our room.

In a corner of the town hangs a sign that makes no sense to foreigners. But the kanji written word can easily be recognised as a native chinese's handwriting.

The restaurant only have 2 tables and 8 chairs in total with gleeful Christmas decorations and a pot that is over boiled, producing steam that humidify the air.

Cold and Shivering we walked entered the cosy restaurant. There were only 3 food on the menu, all of which are Chinese cuisine " 玛保豆腐", "猪肉片" and "肉卷包".

The shop was attended by a young girl which was my age, all of us were impressed by how fluent she could speak Chinese, especially in this native land. What was more impressive was that she tended the shop alone.

We came to realize that her grand parents were migrants from China, just like most present Singaporeans which includes me, she was born and grew up in Japan though. She don't look like a chinese at all.

Although her pronunciation was accurate but her grammar used were completely that of the Japanese language. Like for example, where we say that every shop is different, in chinese we would say "每间店都不同". Instead she said it as "店店不同".

She wrote "顺坂" on a piece of paper which was a name of a city that she intro us to spent Christmas at. That hand writing looked as if it was written by a preschooler, with the "顺" drawn half the palm size and the "坂" so small. She was went to study in China for a year after graduating from high school in Fu Zhou.

For someone of the same age, she was already opening her own restaurant, managing her own life and earning her own living. Don't you feel useless?

I hope young adults in Singapore knows how fortunate they are..

She really inspires me.