Married in a Kimono, Happy in Switzerland We interviewed Mayumi, a 36-year-old Japanese woman who has lived in the Swiss town of Bevaix for two years with her husband-an Englishman whom she met on the banks of Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland. “In Japan, to answer someone with a 'no' is very impolite. We almost never say it! "said Mayumi. She is thinking back to how she kept this custom even upon her arrival in Switzerland. "The Japanese manage not to ask direct questions in order not to embarrass the person they are speaking with. But here, people ask very directly, ‘Do you want a glass of wine?’ ‘Would you like some coffee?’ Well, I always felt I had to say ‘yes'! Mayumi first set herself up in the city of Montreux, that spectacular resort town on the banks of Lake Geneva. She wanted to finish her education as a tour guide, and she thought that she would be able to communicate with Swiss people in English. "But here, relatively few people speak English! "she told us. However, she was able to find someone who indeed spoke English very well-her future husband, who was an Englishman. The couple has been married for two years. They live in an extremely modern house in Bevaix, where Mayumi appends most of her time. She has become a mother, and she interrupted her studies to have her second child, a little girl whose name translates as purity. "Naming a child isn't taken lightly in Japan, and Mayumi had her mother consult a specialist to make sure her choice of name was a good one. Mayumi's roots are in the city of Izumo, west of Osaka. Her brother and her parents still live in the same place, under the same roof. In Japan, tradition says that the eldest son and his wife should come to live in his parents 'house with his parents. Mayumi certainly could have been married back in Japan. She refused three proposals of marriage there. Her mother, on the other hand, was married before she was 20. According to the institution of arranged marriages, she knew from when she was a little girl that her parents, Mayumi's grandparents, would choose a husband for her. Mayumi is both modern and traditional. She raises her children to have Japanese manners. Her son, at 20 months of age, modestly bows his head with his hands folded before every meal. Mayumi told us, "it is a way of showing respect for the family that provided the food. The elder members of the family sit at the top of the Japanese family. In Japan, people who work hard to support the family are shown respect. "Mayumi can remember her brother coming home from work each night at 10: 00 P. M. "We have very few vacation days, and it's very rare to have a week off, "says Mayumi. When her brother attended her wedding in Switzerland, he had to leave the very next day. On her wedding day, she dressed up in a kimono of beautiful Japanese fabric. Mayumi doesn’t think about going back to live in Japan. "I prefer to raise my children here. In Japan, education is so competitive and severe. Furthermore, my husband would never want to live there-there would be too many new rules to learn! " However, Mayumi holds things associated with Japan close to her heart. During her teen years, she studied calligraphy (the art of writing), the tea ceremony, as well as the Japanese version of flower arranging. She is also an expert cook, and she shows off her Japanese dishes to her Swiss friends who are eager to learn from her.