Fishing in French Guiana

There is Orapu River in French Guiana. That’s all I know. Actually, a google search showed some pictures of beautiful rivers in jungle. Though I tried again, I couldn't find details.

About a decade ago, I felt like I was stuck in a rut, I had no idea of my business, and didn't know what I wanted to do. I felt as if days passed very slowly or nearly stopped. I tried something new but almost of all was failed. I thought how I would be happy if I could be a stranger in an unknown place. I lost my way. At least I felt so at that time. However, thinking back now, that was not serious. That was the stepping stone that everyone has to pass.

One day, my coworker Mamoru visited my cubicle. He was flapping a paper.
“Hey Mamoru, What’s up?”
“No much, Look at this. Dear Ms Mamory …” He read it aloud.
“Mamory. Isn’t it cool? ”
“I’m neither Mamory nor memory. And I am a man” He pretended to be a bit upset.
“Now, now Mamory, they don’t know Japanese name. Japanese is not less famous than we expect. ”

That was just unknown foreigners’ typo. They just typed ‘y’ instead of ‘u’. But that gave good inspiration to me who has been struggling in dead end. Changing name might refresh me. An idea like a joke came to my mind. At the time I was looking for new mail address for brand new cell phone. I thought of giving new address new name that is brief, ageless, gender-free and nation-free. I created carefully such kind of names, input them into web search engine and ensured that those didn't match Japanese, English, French or other languages. While imagining new name, I could escape from painful reality. After some trials and errors, finally I found a good name ‘orapu’. It seemed to be easy to remember and very cool.

Using it, I found it was more extremely convenient than I expected. Because it is free from spam mails. I began to use my favorite name for other user ID, blog and internet purpose. One day a internet provider sent me an envelope. That showed “XXXX オラプ様(TO Orapu XXXX)”. I felt as if I got another personality and was very satisfied it. Now sometimes I use ‘Orapu’ as the middle name or the signature.

While I had been fighting with my dead-end, the internet technology had been incredibly improved. Google arrived. They wept not only internet search but also internet world. They accelerated expansion of the internet world and changed even our daily real life. One day, I found Orapu River (Rivière Orapu) in results of a Google search. I had strange feeling as if I met an unknown look-alike by accident.

Orapu River is still mysterious. After retirement, spending all day fishing in Orapu River sounds great. What kind of fish will I catch there? I might be eaten by crocodiles instead of catching big fishes.