WHEN Yoshiko Stynes moved to Swan Hill from Tokyo in 1967, there was no soy sauce available anywhere.
She had to order it from Melbourne, and every time Yoshiko returned to her native Japan she stocked up on sauce, seaweed and sweets.
Yoshiko ended up in the Mallee after meeting a Melbourne boy called David Stynes who was learning martial arts in Tokyo in the early 1960s.
David offered to teach Yoshiko English, and in return she taught him Japanese.
It was a match made in heaven, but to their respective families it took some getting used too.
“They were very shocked. I was one of six children and the youngest,” Yoshiko says.
“My father was a Buddhist priest and never had contact with Western people… when I told my parents my father was terribly, terribly disappointed and a little bit angry because he never imagined in his life that his children would marry a Westerner.
“David’s parents were also quite shocked, at that time the White Australia policy had just ended a few years before.”
Yoshiko was one of the very first Japanese residents of Swan Hill and she remembers being welcomed with open arms.
“Neighbours were quite fascinated by me,” she recalls.
“They’d never seen an Asian face like mine before.”
But arriving as a 19-year-old with limited English was not without its challenges.
Yoshiko remembers a guest appearance at a local CWA branch, when she was brand new to the town.
“Because my husband is a typical Aussie he used to use a lot of swear words,” she says.
“I got an invitation to speak about Japan at the CWA and started to use swear words and they started giggling.”
Yoshiko credits serving customers at the Stynes’ Campbell Street pharmacy as helping improve her English.
“The pharmacy was kind of the centre of the community,” she says.
“People came and talk about their problems.
“Working at the pharmacy helped me learn customs and make friends.
“People were fascinated by my background, and very kind to me… it was good for me because I had the opportunity to introduce my country’s customs and culture.”
Although the Stynes intended to stay only a couple of years in Swan Hill, it was after 26 years and the arrival of four kids — Gilman, Miwa, Mariko and Yumi — that they finally left the Mallee for Melbourne.
She still visits her Swan Hill friends when she can, and makes the biennial trip to act as an interpreter to the Yamagata delegation, as she did over the past weekend.
Yoshiko’s sister lived in Yamagata, and when Yoshiko was approached by councillor Ron Clark about the possibility of a student-exchange program she volunteered to travel to the city and engage in talks with the Yamagata officials.
The rest is history.
“The people are similar —Swan Hill people and Yamagata people,” Yoshiko explains.
“Open and always happy.
“It’s why it has kept on going.
“They both have similar interests.”
Pick up a copy of today’s Guardian (Wednesday July 8) for more great stories.
