Come Away with Me

The Bijins

I knew I just had to take a picture of this poster the instant I saw it outside this cosmetic shop called 神戸美人ぬか本舗 in Kobe.

You see, 'bijins' is an endearing nickname that my group of university gal pals from honors class days had unabashedly given ourselves. As can be deciphered from the Chinese character, bijin (美人)simply means beauty or literally The Pretty Ones as Sharon would have called it. It started out as some kind of joke, the details of which I don't think anyone remember now. The origin of it though forgotten, somehow the name just sticks around.

I certainly did not think that I would have made such good friends by the time I was done with my tertiary education at NUS. If one have to put it this way, the bijins are indeed a bunch of latecomers in life. But as the saying goes, it's better to be late than never.

The group comprises of varying personalites and are different in ways more than one. What makes the chemistry in this group special is the fact that unlike friends you met at secondary schools or JC, who had more or less grown up together over the years, the bijins do not share such background nor history and pursue various interests but yet that did not prevent everyone from becoming good friends.

While we studied together for a year or so in university, we really only got closer as a group after leaving school. Fresh and new to the working world then, someone started an email forum (at work!) and before long we found ourselves exchanging emails daily! We hung out often from then, a few picnics, Christmas parites, drinking parties, potluck parties (oohh..the bijins just love potluck parties), not forgetting our annual Chinese New Year Lo Hei at Fatty Weng's. With such close bonding, it is a matter of time before many of our other halves were invited to our many gatherings too.

The bijins do not have to talk on the phone or be constantly in the know about what is going on in one another's life but when we come together, it is as if we've never left. Topics after topics and the conversations just flow. We've talked about it before and we all agreed. You see, the bijins celebrate low maintenance friendship.

But whenever the group get together, it's always a good feeling. I know this is a bunch of girls I can count on. And I know too that these are people I can grow old with.

posted by テレサ @ 1:04 PM