August 19, 2010. In Osaka’s prime district, the author saw an elderly mother and daughter walking hand in hand, smiling like girls. Their radiance revealed a form of true happiness—one absent in Tokyo.

A short essay from the morning of August 19, 2010, describing an encounter with two elderly women in a residential area of Osaka. Through the sight of the two holding hands and smiling, the author questions what “true happiness”—something he believes cannot be found in Tokyo—is, contrasting it with the pursuit of social success and fame.

Two Girls
August 19, 2010

This morning, as I rode a taxi along the same road as always, something caught my attention.

Only recently did I learn that, near this prime district of Osaka, there once stood public housing buildings. Having worked in real estate, I was genuinely astonished that I had not known this until now.

One of the monuments to Japan’s miraculous postwar recovery is these three low-rise reinforced concrete housing blocks, located in what is now undeniably a top-class area.

From between them, a petite grandmother and her equally aged daughter appeared.
They walked hand in hand toward a nursing care car that was waiting on the road.

Hand in hand, with smiles as radiant as the sun,
the two of them shone like girls once more.

Fame or anonymity—none of that mattered.
What they embodied was true happiness, a happiness absent in Tokyo.

This morning, these two girls taught me what that true happiness is.