After studying European and American culture, Yuko traveled solo to Toronto, Canada, where she worked as a bilingual secretary in a Japanese stock brokerage in the pre-Internet era, when daily stock portfolios were collected by hand, reports prepared with ‘word processors’ and sent by ‘Telex’ (to those who weren’t born before the 80s, the computer was a chunky block with green-white text, looking like a space invader game).
Finding Canada too cold, Yuko travelled to Cairns in Australia and made the tropical rainforest her second home, worked in the tourism industry, raised a family and gained a social work degree and interpreter licence. After almost 30 years of absence, Yuko is back to Tokyo as an onobori-san all over again, wide-eyed and excited, shamelessly taking pictures of every exciting encounter (mostly food!). A Hato bus tour is on her list, and this time, she is unstoppable, equipped with Google map.