A Phone Call with Weird & Lovely Fam

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A freezing weekend morning, the perfect lovely weather for hibernating, I finally called my family after a long time.

This is our secret and don’t tell this to anyone, but my family is full of weirdos. And for some reason they’re always busy. Even when I last visited Japan, the house was almost empty. So, getting a few of us together on a call—even if not the whole gang—is a rare event.

Because of the time difference, I have to call in the morning for it to be nighttime in Japan. So, despite it being my day off, I set a million alarms, finally woke up to the last one, and groggily answered the call—barefaced, bed-headed, and barely functioning—only to be greeted by a scene straight out of a TikTok skit or a comedy sketch.

There were my mom and sister, standing side by side in matching white robes, hair down in identical waves, looking weirdly serene. And behind them? My dad, snoring away on his back like a log.

A painstakingly inaccurate yet emotionally accurate recreation of the moment.

Turns out, they had been on a spontaneous trip.

In our family, conversations never make sense because everyone talks over each other at machine-gun speed. You have to yell your point across, or it gets lost in the chaos. Even meals are a survival game. If you see something you want to eat, you’d better grab it that instant, or you’ll be left with nothing but dishwashing duty. Forget about saving leftovers in the fridge—that’s not even an option.

But that day, the two of them sounded strangely calm and slow. 

"We were looking at the stars."

"They were so beautiful."

Their peaceful expressions were suspicious. I was confused. Clearly, life had been beating them down. I remembered how hard it was to even schedule this call—we had to plan it two weeks in advance.

My sister, currently in medical school, had just finished exams she was at risk of failing.

"Every day, I’d go to the library at dawn, study all day with a heart of stone, and come home in total darkness," she said calmly.

"At some point, food stopped mattering, so I just wrapped plain rice in plastic wrap and ate it without thinking."

Having gone through similar suffering myself, I sympathized deeply. But also, knowing she spent months traveling just before this, I thought—maybe if she had studied a little earlier, she wouldn’t have had to take three makeup exams? But I kept that to myself.

*****

The disease of busyness is terrifying.

My entire family might have it.

When I lived in Tokyo, I sometimes wondered if the whole city was infected with it.

Back when I was a teenager, when I first started living alone there, I had a harsh wake-up call one morning on the train. Being new, I hesitated for a second—and an older lady shoved me aside, barking, "Move it!" On station platforms, businessmen often bumped into me with their shoulders or clicked their tongues in irritation.

When I told my sister, she said she had once been stomped on by a woman in high heels and randomly yelled at by an old man.

My mom's response:

"That lady was probably menopausal, hormones all over the place. That old man probably hates his job and is respected by no one including his wife and his kids. So scary, huh? Come back here the countryside is the best."

One morning in downtown Toronto, I had a completely different experience. I accidentally got in the way of a woman rushing to work. We stopped, locked eyes, and—

She burst out laughing.

"Haha, oops! I’m so sorry so crowded today! Have a great day" she said with the most radiant smile.

Fresh from Tokyo, I stood there in shock. I spent the rest of my walk in a daze, basking in the warmth of her smile and the lingering scent of her perfume.

People say Toronto is a busy city and it might true, but what a wonderful place!

To this day, I’ve never been yelled at by an angry old man here.

…Okay, maybe not in the downtown streets but on the roads that’s a different story. Everyone behind the wheel turns into a Tokyo businessman.

Still, I never want to get "the disease" again, want to keep working at a good pace, full of energy, like that wonderful lady.

Never too busy to smile!