 |
 |
|
From Swansea to Niigata
16 November 2001
It’s pretty rare for people in Britain to see a woman dressed in Welsh
national costume, and even rarer for people in Japan. But Archers listener
Eleanor Oguma has done her best to educate the Japanese
about that bit of Britain to the left of Birmingham.
Ìý
Eleanor spreading the Welsh word
Brought up in Swansea, Eleanor gained a scholarship to the sixth form
at Rugby School (Nigel Pargetter’s alma mater, by coincidence): "I did
French, German and Economics A Level, and we all had to do some additional
studies, which included things like jewellery making or music performance",
she explains. "They didn’t offer Russian, which I really wanted to do,
but they did do Japanese, so I went for that. I had an interesting teacher,
and I really enjoyed it."
In fact, Eleanor enjoyed it so much that after Rugby she took a degree
in the subject at Durham University. She had heard The Archers before
(at the age of six on a family holiday in the Low Countries in a converted
Sherpa van), but it was at Durham that she really got hooked on the programme.
"I remember when Tony found John by the tractor. I rushed up to my friend
Vicky’s room and we both said ‘Is he dead?’"
To Japan
Armed with her degree, Eleanor took a job on an exchange scheme in the
Japanese city of Joetsu. "I worked in the local government offices, in
their international relations section." As well as translating, she taught
English - using, among other things that favourite Japanese pastime karaoke,
which seemed to involve the Carpenters song "Top of the World" rather
a lot.
"I also organised events, and I tried to teach people a bit about Wales,
which is how a woman in Welsh national costume could be seen in Japan
from time to time."
Heavy Metal
One day, Eleanor went to a party as part of an international festival
and met a young man who was also in national costume: "There was this
chap called Hiroki wearing a skirt - the traditional ethnic dress of the
Karen people of Burma. He was in charge of the wine, and as I like my
drink I saw a lot of him that evening! We got chatting about human rights
in Burma, and we found we both liked heavy metal music."
Eleanor and her husband Hiroki Oguma
After the party, Hiroki, who is a salesman for an educational supplies
company, emailed Eleanor. They stared going out, and the mutual liking
for Iron Maiden eventually proved so strong that they married. Eleanor
moved about 80 miles up Japan’s western coast to Niigata, to a new job
as a research assistant for the Economic Research Institute for NE Asia.
On the Web
While in Japan, Eleanor initially kept in touch with events in Ambridge
through the synopses
on The Archers website, and heard the programme on her occasional visits
back to the UK. When the episodes were made available in Real
Audio, she started to listen to them on her laptop, at 10 or 11 in
the evening, Japan time.
One day she followed a link from the Archers home page to the programme’s
message
board: "At the time, a lot of female listeners were saying how much
they liked Brian, and I thought ‘What?!’ I suppose I can see it a bit
more now - that sardonic edge."
Eleanor soon became a regular contributor to the message board, relating
the exploits of an Archers listener in Japan. "It’s a lovely atmosphere
on the board - very friendly. It’s like chatting in people’s rooms at
university, discussing things from the serious to the trivial".
After three years in Japan, Eleanor feels very much at home there. "I
feel I fit in. It’s weird when I go back home now. I know the rules for
living in Japan - I don’t really know them in Britain." And asked if there
are any similarities between the Welsh and the Japanese, Eleanor thinks
for a moment. "Well, they both have a tendency to sing a lot when they’ve
been drinking."
Visit The
Archers Message Board>>
<< Back
|
|
 |
