After months of searching for his Taiwanese wife, who went missing in her hometown in Changhua County three years ago, a Japanese chef has opened a ramen restaurant in Nantou County in the hopes of finding his devoutly Buddhist wife in the heartland county bristling with temples.
Tamiomi Miharaya, husband of Chang Chun-ping (張鈞萍), said the couple’s dining bar in Japan was destroyed in the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster, after which Chang suffered from severe depression.
Chang went back to her hometown in Changhua County to recuperate, but reportedly disappeared during a stroll at a park in Ershui Township (二水) in Changhua, he said.
Photo: Liu Pin-chuan, Taipei Times
Miharaya came to Taiwan to search for his wife.
Wearing a white frock and a bamboo hat — and hanging Chang’s picture on his neck — he walked 50km every day for two-and-a-half months throughout the county without finding any trace of her, he said.
“It is my life’s duty to find my wife,” he said.
The 70-year-old said that he is very grateful for help from the local police and fire departments, although there has not been any news of her since she went missing.
He wanted to offer a NT$1 million (US$32,025) reward for help in finding Chang, but he does not that much money to offer, he said, adding that he would nonetheless pay installments to anyone who could help him find her.
To settle in Taiwan and earn his living, he opened a ramen restaurant in Chichi Township (集集), a popular tourist destination in Nantou, where a multitude of temples are located, he said.
To maximize his search efforts, he puts up missing-persons posters in his restaurant and attaches stickers that carry Chang’s photograph on products, he said.
He said he has prepared for the worst, but would keep looking for Chang even if there is only the slightest of chances.
He plans to personally deliver ramen to the police station at Ershui on June 29 to mark the third anniversary of Chang’s disappearance and express his gratitude to officers and firefighters who have helped him in his search, he said.
He said he is at a loss about applying for permanent residency, because the government stipulates that foreign nationals must file their applications in the company of their Taiwanese spouses, which is impossible for him.
He said he had prayed for their reunion in a bow to a mascot frog at a church made of paper in Nantou’s Puli Township (埔里) and sought assistance from New Homeland Foundation director Liao Chia-chan (廖嘉展).
The paper church was built after the Great Hanshin earthquake in Kobe, Japan, in 1995 and relocated in 2008 to Puli, which suffered major damage during the 921 Earthquake in 1999.
Deeply touched by Miharaya’s story, Liao asked law enforcement officials for help and posted Miharaya’s story on Facebook, he said.
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