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Hey Asia, let’s help this person find a photo of their deceased father

Master Blaster Jun 10, 2018
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Bereaved child needs our help to catch a glimpse of one of their father’s fondest memories.

Earlier this week on Imgur, user “Cuddlethegiantdeathkitty” posted a picture of their recently deceased father along with a request for help.

https://imgur.com/gallery/GmnibED#4Xn2tNJ

The full message explains that a few years before his passing, Cuddle’s father achieved his long-held dream of becoming a biker riding around the U.S. state of California. During one of these road trips, Cuddle’s father encountered a tour group of “Japanese people” who were all impressed with his biker looks and took photos with him.

The story stuck with Cuddle who would love nothing more than to be able to see what that moment must have looked like. Since there was a bus load of tourists, there must be several photos of the encounter floating around.

The request has quickly picked up traction online and made its way to the internet in Japan in a matter of days with many putting out the call for any and all photos with this man’s likeness.

However, the main problem is this was just an anecdote told from father to child with very little in the way of hard details. All we know is that it was a rest stop outside of Vallejo, California.

Egawa Tasuku, a writer for our Japanese language site who lived in the area, says that it sounds like the place might be Hunter Hill Safety Rest Area on Interstate 80 just outside of Vallejo. It would have all the facilities that a Japanese tour group would probably make use of.

Also San Francisco and Sacramento are two popular sightseeing destinations for Japanese tourists. These two cities are joined by I-80 with Hunter Hill Safety Rest Area just shy of the halfway point.

This is just our best guess, however, and the actual location might still be totally different. It also isn’t certain that these people were even Japanese to begin with. The Japanese tour group is a rather long-running stereotype from back in the bubble era, so it’s entirely possible the father just assumed they were from Japan.

Another concerning detail is that Cuddle said everyone was “giving thumbs up.” This might suggest a group from another Asian nation since Japanese people seem almost genetically hardwired to give peace signs when posing for photographs. But again, we shouldn’t read too much into the finer points of a word-of-mouth story.

So if any of our readers from Japan, South Korea, China, or the rest of Asia happens to know anyone who rode a bus through California in the past few years, it might be worth asking to see their photos.

Of course, this guarantees you’ll be subjected to a long and boring vacation slide show, but could you take one for the team just this once? It would really brighten the day of someone who lost their dad and could use something special to remember him by.

Source, featured image: Imgur
[ Read in Japanese ]