September 19, 2009-September 28, 2009
Again, I have relegated myself to writing two weeks worth of experiences. My mother and father tell me my writing can be too detailed and confusing at times, so I shall (as I always, but half-heartedly do) strive for conciseness. I am quite sorry for the delay of this posting. SO much to say…
The end of Ethan’s family’s BBQ (Saturday, September 19) went well (or at least what had to be my end and Samantha’s end) and I biked home just fine (left at around 6pm), back at my house by 6:35pm. THEN, because Hanako wanted gyoza (potstickers), we MADE gyoza. Dinner was a little late (~8:30pm) because Otoosan made the inside and then went to buy the dough circles that are the outside and then we (Otoosan, Tsukie, and myself) dolloped the insides in the center of a circle, wetted the outer edge, folded the two sides together, then crimped the ends and folded one end back on itself. (This is confusing I’m sure, so if we ever make gyoza together, I can explain it better by doing it.) We probably had 60 gyoza; though Otoosan burnt one batch, we just ate the non-burnt parts and pitched the burnt bottoms. Watched the ‘Veronica Mars’ episode (season 2 opener) that came with Hanako’s favorite magazine. (LIZ AND CE-WE NEED TO WATCH THE SECOND SEASON or YOU GUYS ARE SO RIGHT-IT ROCKS!!!) I’m addicted basically. Afterwards, a hilariously violent Chinese (dubbed in Japanese) film was on. Did laundry and showered simultaneously.
On Sunday (9/20), Hanako and I got up at 7am and left by 7:20am to get ramen at the local morning market . I thought I had brought a ¥500 coin in my coin purse, but I neglected to remember that I had spent it on omiyage (gift) for Ethan’s host family. Rats! Ramen was ¥400 and Hanako was kind enough to spot me. I gave her ¥300 on the walk back home and ¥100 later. In the beautiful free time that came upon me that morning, I wrote letters and did the rest of my reading and summary for the next Thursday class (9/24). Hustle and bustle took place in preparation for Ko’s piano concert. Tsukie took Hanako (who would be announcing the players as well as turning pages for the adults who were performing) to her aunt’s house (whose concert it was) at around 10am and Otoosan was in and out. Then Tsukie took Ko at around 11:30am/noon. I was able to Skype with a friend before Otoosan, Tsukie, and I left at 1:10pm (after VERY QUICKLY eating a DELICIOUS lunch of rice, gyoza innards-stuffed tofu, and all sorts of yummy leftovers. My host family does a GREAT job of leftovers-a lot like my American family J We drove to Tsukie’s mother’s house to pick her up for the concert.
It was taking place at a hall near Morioka Station (train, shinkansen (bullet train)) in a medium-sized room with cathedral ceilings (very intimate and welcoming) with a large organ against the upstage wall, shining a brilliant gold. The concert was WONDERFUL. 16 pupils of Maya, Tsukie’s older sister and the middle child, ranging in age from 6 (pre-elementary school) to Ko’s 17 (and high school third year). 2 boys and 14 girls and two of the girls have been students of Maya’s for TEN YEARS. Hanako told me at breakfast that two other pupils had decided not to play in the concert-one had too much pressure on her and the other was a mentally disabled woman. Both had performed before though (concerts take place at various times during the year). All pieces were memorized. Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart… A visiting piano player, a middle-aged woman who was in a piano conservatory-like group with Maya, played. Maya did too. WOW. All involved posed for pictures following the concert, received cake in individual boxes as well as flowers.
Afterwards, we returned to the house to change clothes and then rode our bikes the ~18 minutes to the Italian restaurant to meet Maya, Mire (Tsukie’s oldest sister), Obaasan (their mother), Maya’s husband, Maya’s son, ad Maya’s son’s girlfriend. Great conversation. 95% in Japanese, which I prefer, which was AMAZING. IT FELT SOOOOO GOOD. Hanako always wants to practice English, so we talk in English.
Maya’s son’s girlfriend is from Nagano, but lives in Tokyo now. I asked her about the snow monkeys and the onsen (hot spring) I want to visit during our individual travel time, but she said that now there is no snow (duh!), so I might not go. She went to Michigan near Kalamazoo College as an exchange student when she was 17 for a short amount of time, so she speaks English well. It was great to be part of such a welcoming atmosphere, with delicious food, and to feel at home in a way. A growing experience to be sure.
We rode home and I stopped at Jois, a local grocery store, to make change for Hanako (to give her the last ¥100 from when she paid for ramen that morning) and bought bananas and aisu (ice cream) for the household. It is impossible to say thank you as many times as they deserve to hear it. J
Monday (9/21) was Respect for the Aged Day, and the formal (I suppose) start to Silver Week (shiruba uiku). I was up at 8, then at 8:30 thanks to another alarm. Breakfast was at 9, but it was a relaxed affair, with Hanako and Otoosan coming down slowly. Ko had badminton practice from 9-3 or so, so I had heard him leave. I was planning to join Sensei (and whoever else showed up) at her apartment at noon for lunch and a sightseeing tour by bicycle. I finished my homework (the summary part of the weekly journal assignment), then I asked Sensei via text message if I could come by her place a little early and be on the wireless Internet. She said around 11am would work well, so I left soon after (at around 10:20am), mailed some letters at the post office, and did my best gaijin impression when I nearly fell off my bike near some schoolgirls.
My main aim in using the Internet was to complete some loan information and I needed the FAFSA pin from my mom, so I texted her en route to Sensei’s to see if she could get it to me. She tried to call me when I reached Sensei’s, but making the call (presumably because it was an international dial) wasn’t in her “calling plan”. She emailed me the pin and then I burned the evidence. A faithful partner in crime she is. It worked-HOORAH!
Mitchell and Ethan joined us for hard-shell tacos and taco rice (DELICIOUS!!!!). I had brought some vanilla ice cream bars as omiyage (gift), so those were a great dessert. Abhi also came, but only to eat and use the Internet. There was much Ethan-Abhi-Ayano (Abhi’s Skype partner) banter which led to us all weighing ourselves and stretching out our spines on the floor (one person lies on their back and grabs the back of their neck; the next person pushes down their elbows into their chests). Ethan’s back cracked like fireworks.
Rode around to Hoonji Temple (the underground part has many statues), saw another Demon’s Handprint on the Rocks, went to a sweets store Sensei loves (she bought us each a special treat that is specific to this week-azuki (red bean paste) in the middle of a mochi ball dusted with green matcha-like powder (green tea)). We were right across the street, incidentally, from the taxi stop where Sensei, Tamara, and I caught a taxi back to our bikes after the dashi (float). We then biked down the street to a famous senbei shop (crackers to eat with tea-GREAT omiyage) that was RIGHT across the bridge from the shyakusho (city hall) and was on the dashi (float) route the previous week. THEN we continued to a shop where all the products were made from bamboo or some other grass-like natural resource. Baskets, hats, mats, shoes, etc. Will come back for omiyage. THEN we went down a street where the wanka soba shop lies (we will be eating this in late November-small bowls of soba noodles; Sugiwara Sensei of the Morioka Board of Education ate 125 bowls one time! Abhi will give her a run for her money…) Next door was our destination-a shop Sensei had talked about where the soy sauce, juice, ice cream is soy WITHOUT THE SOY. Magical, really. Omiyage ONCE AGAIN.
Mitchell wanted a happi (festival jacket), so we went into Sakanacho and looked around, No happi, but Ethan DID buy an umbrella-a HUGE paper one. J That shop has WONDERFUL tea they gave us. YUM. Sensei, lastly, wanted to take us to a nearby building (I ride past every Monday and Thursday) that is somewhat of a Morioka matsuri (festival) museum has, on the second floor, a LARGE display of a matsuri procession made entirely of PAPER. There were about eight dashi and one mikoshi displayed, with the people to accompany each. We parted ways because Sensei wanted to catch a bit of the sumo championships that are taking place until Sunday (9/27) and I came home to read and reword (to better understand) some of the Arabic research I had found and copied to Word.
I was full from lunch (that was probably the source of my fullness-taco rice really does you in) and the mochi sweet and the not soy ice cream and the tea (though I felt I had eaten more), but I ate dinner. I really want to feel hungry again (sorry for the quick magnifying of the personal here). I’ve become a garbage disposal, but am not nearly as active as I used to be or think I am.
Left at 2:30am (Tuesday, 9/22) for TOKYO DISNEYLAND!!!!! Went to bed around 10:45pm and woke at 2am. We left by 3am (Otoosan had wanted to leave by 2:30am) after much hurried car filling and a tired teenage boy. After being in a speeding car this morning as Otoosan rushed to get on the road and drove fast to save time (U-turns are also more accepted here, the red lights had no other cars around, lane change after lane change) and Tsukie was saying “stoppu, stoppu, stoppu” at red lights, I think about driving and it scares me. AND I received my license four days before leaving for Japan. These streets are SO narrow and bicycles and pedestrians are everywhere-it is a MIRACLE that more people and cars do not get injured/battered. I can’t imagine how tame American driving must appear to Japanese people, how WIDE our streets must be, how a “close call” in the U.S. is NOTHING. Didn’t get great sleep during the drive, but there were multiple rest stops to stretch and change drivers and seats. The “rest stops” are like American ones, but with less woods and more amenities-formal food (cafeterias, aisu, etc.) and good restrooms.
We arrived in Tokyo, the sprawling vastness that it is, at 8:30/9am, but sat in three hours of traffic. Cars pass on the right and slow cars travel on the left AND most backseat windows are tinted. AND nearly every car has a GPS system on the dash or near the radio. AND the cars have the coolest names: the Nissan March, the Mitsubishi Minica, the Daisatsu (I think that’s the brand) Move, etc. names we’ve never HEARD of. And NO, not all of them begin with M. When it’s Silver Week, what better way to celebrate the aged, the country, and the fall season then to go to DISNEYLAND?!?! Otoosan did a great job of trying to cheat the traffic and force the GPS system to find every possible way in that WASN’T blocked. Due to the busy-ness, the park shut down ticket sales until around 5pm (we arrived at around 12:30pm), so we couldn’t get in on Tuesday. While we were driving around though, I felt (finally) the feeling of OH WOW I COULD EASILY GET LOST HERE. Many places we drove through, intersections, areas, etc. have the same feel as places I went in 2007 and places I have been in Morioka. Places RESEMBLE each other. I found myself thinking I was in Shibuya (an area in Tokyo) or in Morioka though I knew I wasn’t. That’s why I’m a LANDMARK person, so I don’t get lost as easily…maybe.
We had trouble deciding where to eat (it’s not that the Japanese are indecisive, it is that they want to look at all options and make the best choice for the group OR allow all individuals involved to see the possibilities and then choose the best choice for THEMSELVES) and I was becoming that irritable beast I am when I’m either a) tired, b) hungry, or c) sick AND I was two out of three, becoming three out of three. We looked at the main area (the hotel right outside the entrance gate had a restaurant and there was another area up further near the train station, which included a konbini (convenience store), a coffee shop, and a burger place. (Disneyland has its own line that connects the hotels to the park as well as a normal station that has train lines going into and out of the city.) Up near the konbini, there was a magician/street performer doing two diabolos surrounded by HORDES of people. I IMMEDIATELY thought of you, Ben Okin. And then you, Liz. It was great to have reminders of Bundy and those beautiful summer and spring days when that diabolo would FLY outside of Bundy dormitory. And the best part, he was doing his act to ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ music, Zeze. *sigh* It was beautiful.
We made our way back to the hotel, found out it had a konbini (because the line at the restaurant was so long and the maître d recommended we go there) and ate in the hotel courtyard. Ko and Otoosan, however, went back to the further konbini and then back to the car, where they slept and Ko studied. Tsukie, Hanako, and I visited the mercantile shop at the hotel (OH MAN. Those Disney princesses, Zeze!!!! And especially Belle reminds me of you, CE!! Saw Tinkerbell things and thought of you, Nix. J There were also Disney pocket notepads-one: “Gelato Mountain” was ALL Mike and another, Indiana Jones with Chip N’ Dale or some other characters SCREAMED Eric) and then returned to the previous area where there was a larger mercantile/gift shop. (I bought a tin of Chocolate Crunch, a candy they both suggested AND the same gift they bought. It was omiyage for my host school teachers and for the SICE group.)
We drove away around 2:30pm and went to Hanako’s apartment, which was about an hour away. En route, I saw a bus that said something like “Magic Dolphin” on it and I thought of Tim Anderson, who did this great dolphin impression during swim practice one day in high school. Out of the water, sounds, and everything-like he was performing. I was still sleepy and my sits bones hurt from sitting so long (yes, Dad, I did just use that word J because YOU use it-a butt pad would have been REALLY nice). Hanako’s apartment was small (probably less than a studio apartment), but Japanese small so it made sense. Bed, bookshelf, desk, closet, refrigerator, sink/kitchen, bathroom. Two windows. It’s up this STEEP hill, so she hates to walk up it, and she has to walk her bike up it too. In her pencil pouch on her desk, I saw the same Stabilo Bros. highlighter you have, Dad. It made me so happy. We all relaxed in our own ways- Ko studied; Hanako “moved” back in; Tsukie folded the laundry Hanako had left hanging up prior to summer vacation; Otoosan put the contents of some Tupperware-like containers into other containers, thereby restocking Hanako’s fridge; I tried to not be in the way. Ko saw something dart under the bookcase or bed, then Tsukie found a lizard while cleaning the floor, so Otoosan picks up a Kleenex and grabs the thing, killing it with his bare hand. I tried to protest for the “catch & release” method, but I was too late. The lizard scared Hanako and Ko and Tsukie VERY much.
For dinner, we planned to go to Yokohama Chinatown, so we left around 6:15pm from Hanako’s apartment. Were looking at parking prices (15 minutes for ¥200, etc.) and chose the six floor garage (30 minutes for ¥300), though I would have chosen it based on the HUGE DRAGON on the side in fluorescent lighting-reds and greens and oranges, accompanied by a few intermittent flashing white lights. The garage also had a deal with local businesses-patronize their establishment with more than ¥1000 (I think) and the parking fee was reduced (or free). There was much disagreement about where to go-the decision-making process of the Japanese-look everywhere and compare prices/quality/quantity/selection, then ask the group. Prior to going to dinner, I saw hum bow-like creations (called nikuman, niku meaning “meat”) being sold by many of the outdoor vendors. Steamed chestnuts were also a popular item. Ended up eating at a restaurant I thought was pricey, but included shark fin soup, fried rice, soba, dumplings. I thought of dim sum with you, Nix. J Afterwards, I bought one nikuman, as Tsukie and Ko did as well, and mango tapioca (BUBBLE TEA!) because Ko had talked about it earlier and I have ALWAYS wanted to try it (sorry I never gave it a chance on Aurora, Nix). It was SO good. After dinner, Otoosan gave us the night tour of Yokohama-saw minatomirai (the amusement park on the bayfront). Over in that general area was “Meet the Herbs”, a pasta place (and I immediately thought of Bill, Becky, Kristin, Liza, Patrick, and Matt-the greatest neighbors we ever never asked for. J Also, in Yokohama, is jonathan’s, a “Neighborhood Coffee & Restaurant”-saw three in our drive around after dinner.
Long day and we were all tired tired tired. We dropped Otoosan and Ko off at a hostel they were staying at and Tsukie, Hanako, and I returned to Hanako’s apartment. We all showered and they slept on a futon , giving me the bed. Because, they said, the futon sleeps two. We awoke at 5:30am so we could pick up Otoosan and Ko and eat some of the food we had brought with us as well as stop by Lawson, a konbini (convenience store), then hit the park by 8am and play until 4, then drive (what could be) the 9 hours back to Morioka.
On my last jaunt out here (in 2007), I bought a Hiroshima Carp (baseball team) jersey. And, pulling past Yokohama Stadium after dinner, I wanted to get a Yokohama Bay Stars t-shirt. ALSO really looking for some t-shirts with English on them that isn’t grammatically correct. That’s the beauty of so many products here as they sort of try to emulate American fashion, etc.
On Wednesday (9/23), we went to Disneyland. It was ¥2000 ($20) to park, ¥5800 ($58) for an adult ticket, and right when we entered, I saw the first and ONLY thing reminiscent of America: an outwardly disruptive crying, hysterical child (probably 6 or 7 years old) sitting down on the ground, lying down, needing the parent to cart him off… The park is run effectively, lines are long (like any major family-focused place), but they go quickly and smoothly (You wait 20-70 minutes to ride for 10 minutes, but people are not stressed or irritable. They are PATIENT.). My goodness they do American better than we do. Maybe it’s that Disney is not ordinary for the Japanese, like it is in America. The merchandise ere, at least, is cheaper. The food too. A mug I saw was ¥880. Ticket holders (necklace like things with a character’s face and a clear window in the back so your ticket can be seen are VERY LOVED) of Mickey and Minnie went for ¥1200. We had Fast Passes (we acquired RIGHT when we entered) for Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. Otoosan waited in line for us at Splash Mountain for an hour while we went to ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ (Ko’s choice and he studied while IN LINE-he is SERIOUS about his studying, or at least realizes that it is necessary to study BUT also knows breaks are important too (like when he watches TV at night); Zeze, the ‘Pirates’ ride was beautiful, much more detailed than the Disneyland ride in America), Western River Railroad (the Early West, basically, with Indians; they grouped many different tribes together though; had painted horses, Indians shooting with darts, Indians shooting with arrows, a railroad station, elk, fish drying racks; dinosaurs afterwards, in a cave; saw a Pteronodon and thought of you, Emily Frye) and the Jungle Cruise (hippos (cruise “guide” who drove the boat used a gun to ward them off), elephants (CE!), a rhino, crocodiles, toucans, alligators, zebras, pythons, lions, tigers, monkeys (they made semi-violent as they depicted them in a diorama ransacking a “field post”, one waving a pistol). The Cruise was very well done-movements were not robotic and animals were in the water, in trees, moving their tails, heads, eyes, etc.
After Splash Mountain, I ate a TORTILLA DOG. Yes. That’s right. A hot dog wrapped tightly in a TORTILLA. GREATEST INVENTION EVER!!!! And only ¥320!! Tsukie bought the photo of us coming down the steep waterfall. (It now sits on top of the television.)Then we took our seats for the HALLOWEEN PARADE. Yes. That’s right AGAIN. There was a PARADE for HALLOWEEN (Disneyland in Tokyo is the same as America in ONE respect-they try to make money and increase attendance at any opportunity). It had COSTUMES. It had CHOREOGRAPHY. It had FLOATS (one with the witch from Snow White was GREAT!) and each prominent Disney character, and some lesser known ones, were aboard the ten or so floats. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Chip and Dale, Pooh (maybe), Goofy, and SO MANY OTHERS were dressed in their Halloween best: capes, hats, purple, orange. There was GREAT music too and I WANT IT ON AN iPOD FOR A DANCE PARTY-“It’s Haaaalloween, a freaky, spooky frightening scream. We’re gonna have a party…You might just see a villain/dancing with a ghoul…” because the whole premise was that the villains might ruin Mickey’s Halloween bash. Would they? Find out when the Halloween Parade begins at 11:45! AND the villains appeared! In smoke even! And there was MORE choreography to try and fight the villains and make them NOT ruin Halloween. I was worried there for a little bit…
Then we were hungry apparently (I wasn’t and Tsukie and Otoosan had had chicken legs during the parade and shared them with us), so we went to the Blue Bayou restaurant near the ‘Pirates’ ride. It was decorated like an outside patio, night sky, the occasional comet, lanterns strung up, it was even COOLER inside…I had a salad and then Hanako gave me some of Ko’s chicken and Otoosan gave me some of his lamb (maybe) and Tsukie gave me some of her Cajun chicken (I actually don’t think it was Cajun) AND Otoosan and Hanako ordered rolls which were BOTTOMLESS (great and terrible idea), so I had three or so rolls (and really the bottomless roll idea is the best I’ve heard since motion sensor lights). BUT a downside of being part of the plans of others, more importantly a host family’s plans, more importantly a Japanese family’s plans, is that you can’t just say “I’m not hungry.” 1) It’s rude. 2) It’s rude. 3) It’s rude. (But you CAN explain after you return from the trip that you want to diet and go back to eating the portions you SHOULD be eating and WHEN you should eat.) We went to Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, then I wanted to go on a raceway (where Hanako drove for the first time!), then we rode Space Mountain. It was calming (like what you said skydiving felt like, Kyra-lin), though my head hurt afterwards, like it had been put under pressure. (Haven’t had many headaches here, but I’m starting to think Space Mountain-like rides are NOT good for my head.)
After all the joyous fun, we said goodbye to Hanako (~4:30pm) who would take the train from the station up the way (by the other gift shop and coffee shop and burger place and man on double diabolos) to Yokohama. Like the rest of Japanese culture the goodbyes were, while sweet, not emotional. Otoosan hugged her from the side, cheek to cheek and smiled, Tsukie hugged her and did the French cheek-to-cheek press on both cheeks, Hanako said “jyaa ne” (“See you later.”) to Ko, who responded with the same and a wave. It was very detached from what I know. There were no tears, no full on tight hugs (the lack of REAL hugs is one of the more difficult things to get used to in Japan). Bring me tearful goodbyes! Bring me spine-popping hugs! Nope. Just a “See you later. We’ll talk tomorrow,” attitude, which is probably healthier.
So we’re walking back to our car and a couple (male/female) walking in front of me caught my eye. They walked towards us and passed us, but I continued watching. The girl had a large silver purse and the guy took it from her and carried it, heaving it over his shoulder. It was at that very moment that I saw (and more clearly see now) that the girl didn’t lose any strength in that interaction. She let the guy help her or she asked for help and he kindly obliged. I had this epiphany that it’s OKAY to let people help me, it’s OKAY to ask for help if something is too heavy or too much. You lose no pride, no ability. You gain greater self-respect, in a small way. Somehow, I feel I must bear all burdens, all weight alone and I know not why. I am too used to lugging crap with me from house to house, I am used to carrying too much, but needing all of it (or feeling I need all of it) for some reason or another. I figured that was how it was, from childhood to now. Be prepared (which is always good) and be independent. I have scaled back while here, though. I have calmed a bit within. I took only a tiny purse to Disneyland because I did not want to be the person with the large backpack being a hindrance to others. Well Ko brought his backpack and Hanako and Tsukie had shoulder purses. Otoosan even pointed out that they should have brought less like me. Ha! No one is going to believe THAT.
Otoosan cares SO MUCH for his family. He loves to document the trip by having his children pose or offering to take my picture in front of places. I’m glad I took him up on a pose of us in front of the Disneyland sign before we departed. He asked me to take a picture of the family at lunch (Blue Bayou) because there are so few photos of all of them together (don’t know if that’s me being a part of the family OR me not being wanted as part of the family OR me being paranoid and them just wanting a family picture J).
We left at 4:50pm. And en route back, flew down a hill almost into a safety barrier and through a red light. Otoosan is a crazy driver, but I am not afraid (clarification: the idea of driving in a place where the cars go opposite than they do here scares me, not driving itself). I am not getting stressed out as often as I used to-maybe I have learned to become clam or at least not make big deals out of small things that don’t need to be given that much attention. I also think the change of scenery is good for my mental health. (As it will be for you, Liz, when you go to London J) We had dinner around 8:15pm at a rest stop place-the radio was playing parts of “The Wheels on the Bus”, “Since You’ve Benn Gone” (Kelly Clarkson?), and Pachelbel’s “Canon” (YES MIKE!!!) in a spliced fashion, so I heard little bits of them and stopped eating my toridon (meat on rice; in this case, tori chicken) and was severely confused, but glad to hear such familiar songs. Why those three I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA. Also in the cafeteria-like place (which has a meal ticket vending machine-like contraption; you pay in the coin slot or bill slot and press the button of the dish you want, then take the ticket you receive to the counter ; they’ll keep one part of the perforated ticket and you’ll keep the other so you can pick up your food when they call your number) was an AED device with a safety video being shown on a screen. It had the poke poke “Are you okay?!” bit we learned in the CPR workshop (Thought of you, KB J). Not so much with the STOP of the stop-look-listen; the person in the video rushed to the victim lying unconscious. WHAT IF THERE WAS A FAULTY WIRE? OR A POISONOUS SNAKE?
I’m all about buying my own food. I tried to buy my own lunch at the hotel konbini and help with dinner in Chinatown and help with lunch at Blue Bayou, but I FINALLY UNDERSTOOD (when I didn’t have many coins left and Tsukie insisted I eat enough, so she bought dinner) that when they had kept saying “later” and I thought I would get to treat the whole family later, they actually meant that the trip total would be tallied later and then I would be told what I “owed” or could contribute. We got home around 1am, but I showered and didn’t get to bed until around 2am which is, yes, I know NOT THAT LATE in college world. We don’t have enough appendages to count the 2am pizza runs and ‘Gossip Girl’ sessions we had last semester, right Bundy?
Thursday (9/24) felt like a Monday. I was tired from getting back, but we had our Japanese placement test! When we returned from vacation, Gandai University would be starting up, SO we needed to find out, after this first month of classes, what level we would be going into (with other Gandai international students). The classes stayed the same (as Sensei told us in her class that afternoon) and though I am still in elementary level and it is wicked easy, I am glad (SO very glad) I am not going blindly into a level (A GREAT POSITIVE OF THIS SEMESTER). I finished early (as many others did) and I was able to get on Facebook for a little while, finished my host school diary and host family diary (for Cross-Cultural Educational Perspectives class), and received an email from Patrick Olson (Hope your visit to Earlham was AMAZING!!! J). Other people had not finished the readings for class. (We had a five day weekend too.) Lunch was yet another great meal of fish and rice and vegetables and the ATM was successful in giving me money for the upcoming SICE trip to Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Tokyo.
We all owed Yuki around ¥10000 for our first month’s cell phone card (¥3000), the two “textbooks” (2 packets of photocopied articles, 1 for each Earlham class), and the festival tabi (socks) and zouri (shoes). I broke a ¥1000 bill in the co-op (buying a Soyjoy bar (dried fruit bar) and a waffle with ice cream inside that I THOUGHT was ¥105, but was ACTUALLY ¥85. OH. GOSH. SCORE!!!!! Many of us still had time to kill, so we went to get online on nearby computers in the gakusei sentaa (student center). Thus, I was able to give Yuki exact change. Others paid exact change, which is what she requested; others took out loans on their Earlham accounts to pay. I also felt MIGHTY good handing the money to Yuki in the envelope (she requested we put the money in an envelope) she had given us our August/September lunch money in (recycle!), as well as our homework (article summaries, host school experience diary, host family experience diary), and the mini diary we keep of the tasks we do at our host school. Others didn’t do the homework or the mini diary because they thought we didn’t have to and/or because we had only spent one day at our host schools. It feels good to be on top of things to say the least.
Watched a great movie about the bombing of Hiroshima. And by “great”, I mean well done. Nothing about our savagery was great. After class, Elizabeth, Nicole, Claire, Tamara, and I went to the travel agency behind the Gandai co-op and bought our shinkansen (bullet train) return tickets from Tokyo to Morioka. Yuki had given us the money in class and the tickets were EXACTLY that amount (even though Elizabeth had looked online and saw that the price was about $40 more). Biked home via the yuubinkyoku (post office) and bought ¥70 stamps for postcards. I have realized I could go broke just from buying cough drops and stamps since that’s all I ever REALLY want to buy. But I USE both of them, so that’s worth it, in my mind. That’s the life I want to lead.
I go home and did some preliminary packing, compiled a list of people to send post to and my dream life of going broke buying stamps becomes a desired reality. Helped with dinner (didn’t realize I was hungry until I started eating; BUT clarification: wasn’t NOTICEABLY hungry)-hambagu (hamburger), salad, vegetables. TV before dinner had a commercial playing an Eric Clapton song (just for you, Eric). IF ONLY I COULD WRITE DOWN WHENEVER I THINK OF SOMEONE, MY GOODNESS!!! Laundry and shower. Hanako called and I thought that hopefully we would see each other while I would be in Tokyo. I also talked with Otoosan and Tsukie about the Gandai pool and wanting to use it, but being told that because we are not full time students, it is not for our use. Otoosan suggested talking to the Board of Education. That seems a bit extreme, but perhaps.
Friday (9/25) was a great day-I gave out my omiyage (Disneyland Chocolate Crunch) and received another letter from a third year student (right before our vacation). I left three candies for the two janitors and the senior clerical worker who were not present when I left at the end of the day (I really hope I am not becoming a hindrance in my desire to include everyone. I got home after school and washed my running shoes in the spigot outside because I was going to volleyball practice with Abhi’s host mother!!!!! And shoes that have never touched ground are worn in the gym. (Man, look at how much they care about their buildings.) I talked with Tsukie as she prepared dinner early for me, Yoriko picked me up at 6:45pm, and we drove to the elementary school gym (about 20 minutes away) with Tamo (her son; 8 years old?) and Ako (her daughter; 6 years old?). They played basketball (and, when other women arrived, ran around with the other women’s children) while we set up the net and jogged around (each person did their own jogging warm-up) and warmed up our arms (overhead throwing to each other, overhead bouncing to stretch out our arms, setting to each other, passing, then pass-set-hit). Yoriko said she wasn’t young, but I beg to differ. The women ranged from 20 years old (me) to late twenties and early 30s to 40s to a woman whose daughter was older than me (and whose age, after open discussion, was close to 60). It was greta to see people active and waning to continue to be active.
There were nine of us-eight women and one man and maybe seven children. In the gymnasium, like most other schools I have seen, the auditorium and gym are the same place (GREAT idea) so there was a stage and curtains, but courts on the floor. It was, literally the BEST practice ever. I wish that my middle school and high schools coaches could have seen me (but I am DEFINITELY glad they weren’t there, because they would have made us run more or do sit ups or do push ups)-it was SO MUCH FUN. I was, like I’ve never been before-constantly moving, constantly ready (especially in the squeaky Mizuno shoes Yoriko lent me) and my platform was good and I did the triangle push away from my forehead when I set (middle school volleyball, anyone?) and I moved TO the ball. And, Rams, I only did the one armed pass (very traditional Hannah move-sticking one arm out to pass the ball rather than moving to the ball and passing more accurately) ONCE. Wow. The best thing was that I was reminded of all the great people with whom I’ve played volleyball with and Kelsey, Katherine, Erica, Nikki, Tashayla (TaShayShay), LaToya (LaToyToy), Sabo, Kristin & Sydney, April (AP), Nina (partner), James Malcolm Hood: THAT rocked. J The best thing was that it was JUST structured enough to provide support, but loose and fun enough to encourage the players to keep going. That particular group practices there on Tuesday and Friday nights from around 7-9pm (I think the boy’s basketball team of the school practices beforehand), but Yoriko only goes on Fridays.
On Saturday (9/26), at 8:15am, we all met at Morioka Station’s south shinkansen (bullet train) terminal. Tsukie took me and hugged me goodbye (yay!) and Ko wished me a good trip before he left for badminton practice that morning. Tamara bought her HUGE suitcase, but had very little in it (that DEFINITELY changed on the return trip and she had planned just so). Claire and I had the least. I explicitly did NOT want to bring luggage. I had my backpack and a bag with thread handles (like from a department store). And that was more than enough.
Tamara (who got home a LITTLE too late the night before from a former SICEer’s birthday party), Mitchell, Samantha, Samantha’s host mother, Ethan, Nicole, and I went up (2 trips up) and met up with Sensei, Sensei’s friend, Mariko (who would be helping us in Hiroshima and Kyoto), Yuki (Program Contact in Japan), Claire, and Elizabeth. When Abhi finally joined us, we took the escalator up to the platform and in the middle (between the up and down escalators), there was an ad for “Creamy Cheesey Cake” and MAN did that fluffy, creamy desert look appetizing. Eric, Rebecca, Alisa/Liza-you know what I’m talking about. (The Cheesecake Factory takes a lot of our money…and we should really only EVER get two entrees with three people…) It felt great to be off to some of the same places Yoko and Mom and I visited in 2007. I didn’t know I would be back so soon, so that really rocked my socks.
On the train to Hiroshima, I was between Tamara and Samantha. Tam spit on me while she was talking and I thought of (and mentioned) the ‘Friends’ episode where Phoebe meets Paul Rudd’s characters parents for the first time and she talks about her life and says “…then I was homeless and this pimp spit in my mouth and I got Hepatitis C…” and this just HORRIFIES them. Well, I though of you, Zeze. And if any of you have NOT seen that episode or that TV how, it’s worth a shot. I didn’t mean to make light of Hepatitis C, however.
Out the window of the train at one station (when riding, I can write down my thoughts more easily because my journal is open and RIGHT THERE), sat another bullet train, a yellow and blue double decker one called “Max”, like the Portland transportation system and Maximillian Alexander Dun Thayer, someone we already miss (an Earlham friend who transferred to U of Oregon to be a duck, if I am correct, and who visited Earlham earlier in the semester while we weren’t there! Alas!). Samantha offered me an ear bud of her iPod, so I listened to a number of Japanese and Korean groups and Kanye West (YES, Liz and Stoeve), Ne-Yo’s ‘Miss Independent’ (Stoeve!), Regina Spektor (CE), Beyonce’s ‘You Had Me At Hello’ and ‘Single Ladies’ (Liz and Stoeve, again!), the Plain White Tees (again you, Liz), Tegan and Sara (LP and E Frye), Jack Johnson’s ‘Go On’ (which reminded me of 103.7 The Mountain and sitting at work at Elliott Bay Marina over the summer and hearing that-thought of you all Kat, Logan, Carolyn, Dwight; Logan, there’s a great pastry shop in Morioka called Michel and when I first saw it, I thought it said Micheel (her last name) and I FREAKED) and Train (Mom). There was also Immortal Technique’s ‘Point of No Return’ (which just got me thinking of Dance Alloy, Earlham’s end-of-the-semester performance of pieces choreographed and danced by students; this song was done last year) as well as Imogen Heap’s ‘Hide and Seek’ (which got me thinking of the New Measures, Earlham’s female a cappella group; they did this song last year too).
I also had time on the train to ruminate on the ways this semester has, so far, gone smoother than any previous ones. 1.) EC provided leather wallets for all of us and so I always put the lunch money SICE gives us (in it’s envelope) in the same pocket and so I always know where it is. No digging through a cluttered purse; stress decreased. 2.) I packed small and live simply. I have nothing on my walls, I keep most anything I can stored away in my drawers to avoid clutter, I went on the “vacation” with a backpack and a ‘carry-on’ bag. That way, I am not forced to roll a suitcase behind me in the melee that is Tokyo and I can move quickly in crowds. It feels good to not have too many attachments. Maybe when I get back, this simplicity will continue. GOSH I HOPE SO. The minimalism in my room really calms the human spirit.
I am continuing to have flash forwards, to sitting on my couch at home, to going to Husky Deli in West Seattle, (which is on my top ten list of places to go when I get back), to walking on the Heart at Earlham, to walking into saga (the dining hall at Earlham), etc. It is surreal and it is because I feel like so much of myself is back at Earlham so I feel like I should be there, living my life there. But Earlham will still be there. The people will still be there (unless they’re off on their own adventures to London (Clairellyn, Liz, Pablo), New Zealand (Meg), or transferring to another school). There are experiences that will be had. I am SO ready for spring, but not so much that I do not enjoy Japan.
I also fell that, upon returning, culture shock will hit me as it did last time. I have a sneaking suspicion that for the first week, I am going to HATE America and that fact that it is NOT Japan. I’m not going to want to do anything, but I WILL want to see people (hopefully!) and do work and keep busy and get healthy. I miss all of you PEOPLE. That’s part of why recording when I am reminded of you is so important. You MATTER. I want to get back to you, Wendy (lunch!). And you, Judi (journalism talk!). And you, Mary (lunch!). And you, Stacy (Chipotle?). And you, Jana (BONNER!!). And you, Derric (Miles is about to be SO OLD isn’t he?). And you, Liz (to talk about internships!). And you, Sonia (to talk about the field study!). And you, Susanne (to talk in the BCSV!). And you, Nelson (to talk about Japan and the next *gasp* one and half years). And you, Rich (to loiter at Runyan Desk). And you, Brad (to ruminate on narcissism). And you, Bill (OH NO, MISTER BILL!!!). And YOU, ZAVIER!!!!! LET’S GO SWIMMING!!!!
When we reached Hiroshima Station and were walking out of the shinkansen terminal, I saw the Starbucks Mom and I ate breakfast and drank coffee in while waiting for a train (it had glass windows for walls and you had to walk up steps to get in). THAT was trippy. When we got to Hiroshima station, we piled into taxis to get to the hotel and on the dash of ours was a small peel away calendar. The partner day with 9/26 was 8/8 Mom (her birthday), that was cool. Got to the Toyoko Inn we were staying at. We were all in double rooms: Tamara & I, Samantha & Elizabeth, Claire & Nicole, Ethan & Mitchell, and Abhi was the lucky guy who got a single. We had free time from 4:30-6, so Mitchell, Ethan, Tamara, and I went to 7-11 across the street. BUT it’s Hiroshima, so we had to cross the street in front of the hotel (small side street) to get to a park, which ran down for a long way. From the park we then crossed one lane to get to an island of sorts. Then we had to cross two more times in marked crosswalks across 4+ lanes of traffic each time. BUT it wasn’t all that busy, so it didn’t seem like a lot. It just wasn’t the normal across-the-street jaunt I think we had been used to in Morioka. Nicole and Claire met us there by accident. Gaijin (foreigners) are like MAGNETS. Got more money out of the ATM there. Larger cities have ATMs in their konbini, but smaller cities, like Morioka, do not. Actually, I bet we have them in Morioka, but they’re just not the konbini we go to. It was warm out, so we all bought ice cream or soda of some kind or both. Inside, the music to ‘Momma Mia’ was playing as was another popular pop-like song.
Prior to leaving, we thought we didn’t have power, but we learned from the front desk (when we returned from 7-11), that we had to insert the long plastic piece our key was attached to into a little switch-like thing by the door. We did so when we got up to our room and the lights came on, I could charge my phone, we could watch TV (sumo!). Abhi, of course, figured this out on his own. When we met downstairs at 6pm for our group dinner of okonomiyaki and we mentioned our power epiphany (thanks to the front desk), he nonchalantly said “Oh, you guy didn’t know that?”
The restaurant was across the street, but to the side, so we only had to walk 50 meters MAYBE (WE could see the restaurant from our window). We had a round of beer for those who wanted to drink or any other drink (any subsequent beverages were our own ¥). Also, they provided plates of cabbage with Worchester sauce and sesame seeds. A good food to partner with beer, apparently. Most people had the supessharu okonomiyaki-you could choose from three different interiors: nanamame (raw ramen noodles), udon (think noodles), and one other. Okonomiyaki, a dish native to the Hiroshima region is two thin pancakes with lettuce, ham, green onions, noodles, squid, shrimp, and fish flakes inside. On top is then a special sauce and mayonnaise. After my beer, I ordered a yuzu sawaa (a yuzu sour), a fragrant orange-like concoction on ice. (¥400→SICE). In addition to my okonomiyaki, which is the size of a small pizza (think 8 slices), I ate ¾ of Claire’s and 1 slice of Sensei’s. So, CLASS, ¾ of 8=6+1=7 PLUS the 8 of my own and I ate ALMOST two whole okonomiyaki. MY goodness. Macha (green tea) ice cream to follow up the glory.
Afterwards, Tamara, Samantha, and I went bowling at a multi-floored alley another MAYBE 50 meters away. Tam had seen coupons in the hotel lobby for “two games for ¥1000!” We played three games, the last one with bumpers. The shoes were VELCRO and very skater boy. Tamara wanted to get a coffee, so we went to McDonald’s (behind 7-11) and Samantha and I got McShakes.
On Sunday was the start of Sightseeing Whirlwind Adventure. Up at 7, hotel complimentary breakfast in lobby until 8:30am. We were down by 7:30/7:40am, ready to eat miso soup, rice, biscuits with sausage inside (like pigs in a blanket!), pickles, radishes, a dish of egg and spinach. BEFORE we got down, there were noodles and AFTER we were done, there were rolls. Computers in the lobby allowed me to feel mildly connected to the other world via Facebook and email.
Our whole group met at 9am, but Ethan and I were done and ready to go at 8:45, so Sensei took us (early) to Hiroshima Station via taxi to buy the train tickets for everyone. Mariko brought everyone else shortly. We all received a ticket. Much Hiroshima Carp paraphernalia (the local baseball team) in the station-wanted to buy a towel.
Took the train to Miyajima guchi, walked out, then under the street (so you don’t have to cross traffic), back up, and into lin for the ferry to Miyajima (saw Madre Padre aisu kurimu, a place I laughed at and took a picture of in 2007). On the ferry there was a young boy with a Brown University t-shirt, which made me think of Dominique (Is Emma Watson there yet? Does everyone stop to take pictures of the girl who played Hermione Granger in the ‘Harry potter’ movies?). When we disembarked and walked up the ramp and into the main station of Miyajima, where people could sit and wait for the ferry, it was a memory rush. I felt like I had JUST left.
Miyajima is known for four things: 1.) deer; 2.) momiji manjyuu (momiji is the shape of the Canadian maple leaf and manjyuu is sweet filling; it is a soft leaf-shaped dessert/snack that has a filling of cream, azuki (red bean paste), chocolate, etc.; 3.) torii, the large red gate marking the entrance to Itsukushima Shrine (the largest shrine on the island); and 4.) okonomiyaki, easily found in the region. This time, there were noticeably less deer near the station, but they have no predators, so overpopulation and lack of fear is a bit of a problem. We got there around 10am and had free time until 1pm. I looked around at shops with Tamara and Samantha. Many keitai (cell phone) charms. Bought MANY postcards and stamps and a keitai charm.
Like in 2007, street vendors along the main “route” (gift shops and little food shops) sell anything from nikuman (dough ball with meat inside, like hum bow) to momiji manjyuu (different gift sets and sizes and types) to okonomiyaki restaurants to sticks of deep fried squid or shrimp or fish or vegetables to sofuto kurimu (ice cream soft serve). One place had a display of all sorts of Ramune (soda-has been made into gum, candy, alcoholic drinks, etc.) flavors. We ran into Abhi, Mitchell, and Ethan there and they had Tamara buy the kimuchi (Korean spicy cabbage) bottle. Had a bite to it, but it was good.
After having a deep fried kurimu (cream) momiji manjyuu (like the experience that I had with Yoko and Mom-I saw the place where Mom and Yoko and I ate our deep fried ones!!! AND the place where we had mitarashi dango, mochi balls on a skewer warmed on an open burner) and an eel nikuman (where the lady treated me like a total gaijin (“Pork?” “Eel?” “Hot.”)), we met up with the group at 1pm.
Sensei gave us ¥300 so we could go in the shrine (for 30 minutes). The tide was coming in, so it was especially wonderful. When the water is up high, the entire place looks like it is floating. It was SO good to see the shrine entrance where there are white flags attached to sticks that you wave to purify the space (a small alter sits there as well). I took a picture of Yoko and Mom waving them in 2007, so it was like a flashback… A Japanese man who spoke English (and was decked out in New York Yankees gear) asked me where I was from and if I was a Cubs fan. I said I was from Seattle. Some loyalties NEVER die.
When we met at 1:30pm, we walked behind the shrine and caught a bus to go up further to the roppu uee (ropeway), a gondola-like contraption that takes visitors (8 people max) up to another station where they move into larger gondolas (that hold 30 people max) that take them to the top station, from which visitors can go to the highest point on Miyajima, Mount Misen. OR you can stay at the top station, in the coffee shop, or go to the observatory (a flat part from which you can look around at the islands around Miyajima, which we saw on the ride up). AND there were MONKEYS. This way, I sort of got the Nagano Snow Monkey and onsen (hot spring spa) experience… These monkeys (sandy colored with pink butts!) are the type that DO NOT like to be looked at directly. We should not feed, touch, or look at their eyes, a sign directed. Up the trail to the top, there is a fire that has been burning for 1200 years (about 15 minutes from the top station) and then on to a three-leveled lookout kind of building with no roof, (another 7 minutes) from which you can see 360 degrees. Mariko, Sensei, and I went all the way to the top (and ran into the same New York Yankees fan on the way down-I joked that I was STILL a fan of Ichiro and the Mariners), whereas us and Nicole, Tamara, Samantha, and Claire made it to the ever burning fire (as did Mitchell). Abhi and Ethan preferred to stay and eat inside and smoke outside the top station. Sensei, Mariko, and I RAN down in order to meet the group at 3:30 (a time Sensei had set), we passed a girl in high heels, which didn’t make any sense to us. We made it back and caught the 3:30 gondola down the mountain. (There were these wide steps leading down to the “docking” area and a man coming off the gondola we were going into had a shirt that said “never under estimate the power of a woman”-I was looking at it SO intently and loving it that I nearly tripped down the step. It was so worth it though.)
It started to rain, we caught two buses, and we reached the ferry terminal at varied intervals. I tired to relax on the ferry so my shoulder would loosen (it tends to tighten up into sharp pain after I carry my pack for a while). Sensei and Mariko said that we wanted to catch the 5:02pm train from Miyajima Station. I led the way, not so much out of a decision, but rather due to the fact that I walk quickly and I recognized the need to get to the station quickly in order to catch the desired train. We had to cross the tracks to get to the other side to catch the train we wanted, but we made it with minutes to spare.
Many people, thirsty, spent (often spend) money at vending machines, which is A) what companies want them to do and B) a waste of money. I find carrying a water bottle and filling it up at the start of the day works well. But that’s just me. I introduced that idea to someone and they said “Yeah, I should do that.” We were all tired from the day, but we got back to Hiroshima, taxied back to our Toyoko inn and were free to find dinner on our own.
Tam and I watched TV (one show played the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ theme song in the background-YES!), I journaled (which isn’t a word apparently), and we decided to go out and find food at around 6:30pm. The night before, Sensei had handed out coupons to the okonomiyaki place (“10% a meal”, “one free drink”), so we went there. Had a butaniku kumuchi plate (which I can’t even remember the appearance of now; butaniku is pork though) and a free drink of a Ramune sour. Nicole was there, but we left her to be by herself because we thought she probably didn’t want to see any SICE people after spending the whole day with them. Had another sour, then water. Tam ordered some kara’age (fried food, in this case, chicken I think). Nicole joined us at our prompting and she and I both had choko aisu (chocolate ice cream) and watched Tam eat and drink more. It was ¥1860 for each of us, even with the one free drink and the 10% off. In Japan, restaurants usually total the check, all dishes and drinks ordered, and then split it evenly between the people paying. Often you are paying for someone else’s drinks or food.
We parted ways when Nicole wanted to go back to the hotel and Tam wanted more cigarettes and I wanted more aisu. So we went to the one logical place: 7-11. I ended up getting the same bar I had gotten the previous day: ¥62 vanilla ice cream with chocolate shell. Bought a can of Suntory horoyoi momo (peach) and a can of Karupisu (Calpis) sawaa (sour). All of this together was LESS than ¥400 MY GOODNESS. Only in Japan, ladies and gentlemen.
We returned to our room (it was 8:30pm) and turned on the TV to Sasuke, which is the EPITOME of Japanese game shows: a grueling obstacle course (what was being shown was the first of FOUR stages; the fourth is free climbing four stories up a rope). During this particular episode, 95 people attempted the 2 minute (maximum time given) course and nine made it under the time limit or AT ALL. This is much akin to the Olympics or firefighter preparation in my mind-some people TRAIN for this show (and I only, sadly, saw male competitors). Around 9:15pm, we went out for more. I bought a can of grapefruit Kirin chuhi and a bag of chocolate cookies and a bag of crispy mame (edamame, soybeans, but made into cheese/rice puff consistency). Ethan texted/e-mailed us prior to us leaving letting us know they were watching The Chappelle Show. We checked Ethan and Mitchell’s room, then to what I THOUGHT was Abhi’s room (but was really Nicole and Claire’s). They told us to go to Samantha and Elizabeth’s room and low and behold, there they all were watching downloaded episodes on Samantha’s computer.
We joined them, shared the crispy mame, tried Abhi’s whiskey and sake and stayed for about an hour. Tam, Abhi, and Ethan went to smoke and I went back to the room. Pretty soon, we were watching TV again (some anime cartoon was on that took place in a marina with boats-thought of my own floating home back in Seattle, Mom). The TV channels are great here-during TV shows, commercials, the news, etc. when music plays, they show the music title and artist. A special on Bothwell, Scotland came on (hope your year is going well, Kate!)
Again, we were up at 7am on Monday (9/28), had breakfast at 7:30 (rice, rice balls with flecks of seaweed, plain rolls, sausage and pasta dish, egg and spinach dish), and met at 8am in the lobby (SO EARLY :P), in order to go to the Hiroshima Peace Park. Tamara said she didn’t want to eat breakfast, so I got ready, did the last minute bit of packing of toiletries (we would leave for Kyoto that day), and turned the TV and lights on to help her wake up. I made sure she was awake before taking me and my stuff down to the lobby. Breakfast at the hotel is busy, so I went on the computer while waiting for an empty table. It’s not that I am afraid of sitting with strangers; it is that I do not want to impose. Elizabeth, Ethan, and Nicole soon came down, just in time to snag an empty table. Mitchell and Samantha cut it close time-wise and Sensei gave them time to eat a little (though Samantha, at least, hadn’t planned on having breakfast). We were all expected to have brought our luggage down and were able to leave it in the lobby (under a net with bells attached to it).
We walked straight down the road, along heiwa no michi (Peace Path), for 15-20 minutes. We came in from the opposite side Mom and I had come to the park by previously, so we first came to the Peace Clock-some 23,000 days since the bombing of Hiroshima; 126 days since the last nuclear test. ARE YOU &#$¥©@% KIDDING ME?! This is where I got pretty angry. It just doesn’t make ANY sense to me-why we would let such an atrocity happen and not LEARN from it. Sometimes I hate being American: I hate being tied to enslaving another culture, killing off a few others, dropping a nuclear weapon on an ENTIRE city. I don’t care if it ended the war faster. I KNOW other peoples have caused similar destruction, but Hiroshima is a LESSON. And it is a HUMBLING place. Nagasaki was a on a MOUNTAIN for GOODNESS SAKE.
We had free time from 8:30-9:20 and I just went off on my own. I was just SO angry, fuming mad, to the point of being speechless. Death affects me. And common sense deserves to be observed. Sometimes I really don’t enjoy people coming with me simply because they do not have their own idea/opinion of what to do during unstructured time. And I just don’t see how people can’t be OUTRAGED. (Here am speaking from my PERSONAL frame of reference again, so I realize that others will not feel the same, but I WANT them to.) I walked to the memorial to the survivors, but didn’t go inside, though I think it was free. “Those who have not experienced the past are doomed to repeat it.” When I saw people from the group, I just walked the other way. If I wanted to see something and they were nearby, I waited for them to disperse.
When I walked up to the memorial (the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims, a.k.a. the Memorial Monument fir Hiroshima, City of Peace) and saw what I didn’t think I would see for years and years, it felt oddly like I had just been there. I looked in the pool and where there were tadpoles before, there were none now. Saw a water strider/spider though. Some sign of life is good. Walked to Sadako’s cranes (Sadako, a young girl, became ill with leukemia due to her exposure to radiation from the blast; she set upon folding paper cranes because, as the legend goes, your wish will come true if you fold 1,000; sadly, she died after a four month battle and did not complete her folding), where there were, as there were before, thousands upon thousands of paper cranes in all different forms imaginable-strings of them, different colored cranes glued or tacked onto a board to create a picture, posters with them hanging off, etc. To a tour group who came towards me, I tried to look sorry. Because I am. I can’t stand being related to people who created such an atrocity. You may say I’m foolish and that I don’t need to think that way and it’s a waste of effort and I KNOW THAT. But sometimes I just feel humbled and need to try and convey some of what I feel as an American, as an individual, as a single person. One single person CAN change things.
I headed towards the A-Bomb Dome and t occurred to me, Mom, that I don’t think we went up close to it and read the signs out in front of it. I know we walked over the bridge, but then we went into the city…So me and my sullen self approached the Dome and I saw some SICE people so I kept my distance. At this point, however, once I am given time to cool off, I was growing more contemplative rather than angry. You just gotta let me be a little angry sometimes because injustice makes my blood boil (and I put “injustice” as the WIDEST umbrella imaginable; don’t try and quiet me, don’t try and tell me that what I FEEL is insignificant or not worth worrying about. No. Just let me BE. (Luckily the SICE people did that, though later on, Sensei tried to reason with me.)
So I’m standing there, reading a sign on a pole across from the Dome and a man approaches me and asks, in English, where I’m from. I explain about how I’m with a group who is from a college in Indiana and we’re on vacation from our stay in Morioka. He THEN asked if I wanted to hear a survivor’s story. I said “Yes! Of course!” (He should be around (practically) 64, but he looks 40 (such is the Japanese skin and lifestyle). ) He sat me down at a nearby bench and began to tell me the story of Hiroshima, aided by a folder of pictures (photographs and drawings, some famous). He was in his mother’s womb (4 months along; born the 21st year of that ruling Emperor, January 22-he showed me his classification card from the government). His grandfather was in the basement of the rest house (located right next to the bridge we all walked over, just a few hundred meters from the Dome AND one of the only buildings in that area left standing after the blast) and he was thus protected from the majority of the damage. When his grandfather emerged however, he did receive some blasts of radiation.
The survivor’s, the man who was speaking, house was very close to the hypocenter (which was just a little bit away from the Dome) and both of his parents were burned. On his classification card, it says what class he belonged to. There were four, in descending order of importance/severity. His mother belonged to class one, his grandfather to two, his father and aunt to three, and him to four. His father was burned a great deal, if I remember correctly, and has died since the bombing, but his mother is currently living with leukemia (at age 93) or some other complication from her exposure. His whole premise, he wore a badge that said “Free Guide” was to tell a true story, a story we probably would not hear in the museum. He talked about censorship and melting skin and a river flooded with bodies. He gave us (by the end, Mariko, Sensei, Samantha, Mitchell, Nicole, and Tamara had stopped, though I do not know for how long; they came in at different points of his story and stayed for varied periods of time) a great perspective and sadly, we could only listen for a little while before we had to get back to the place near the Peace Clock we had dispersed from. Before we left, he gave us all a piece of paper with a web address where we could read his mother’s testimony. It also had his, Mito Kosei’s, email. I could not thank him enough for his time. It was some of the best ten minutes I have ever been given. Check it out if you feel inclined: it is on Dona Sauerburger’s website, a woman from Maryland who he knows somehow: http://www.sauerburger.org/dona/mito.
While he was talking two presumably American women came to listen. They spoke VERY LITTLE Japanese-“What is it you say? Oh-ha-yo go-zai-mas?” I feel like straight up tourists who know very little about the culture and the language and are on some HUGE group tour bus or something are the kind of people who we have to work to not be aligned with. I’m sorry for the blatant rudeness, but it was severely irritating, probably also because I had just come off being angry very shortly before. Please don’t forgive me. The women were probably in their 50s and kept interrupting him (SO AMERICAN) and using these strange slang words (watch, I bet they were from Indiana :P) like “Where was the fall point?” as in HYPOCENTER or EPICENTER (‘cept that’s more with earthquakes, right?). I was thinking Midwest or Florida retirement community or something, but they were pretty pale. They also acted like he didn’t speak the wonderful English that he did, like he HADN’T just told his early life story in a language foreign to him and done it to the point where we could all understand him. I really didn’t want to have to leave.
We got back together by 9:30am. Nicole and Claire were already there, Ethan and Abhi were at the same bench I had passed by earlier, Tamara and Elizabeth came from far off one side. Nicole asked how the guy was as “Was it interesting?” and I said “Yes” in probably a too obviously angry and disrespectful tone. The she said “That’s cool.” What kind of question was that? It was so flippant, so casual. And “That’s COOL”?????? Um YEAH it was kind of AWESOME to have someone who was NOT YET BORN at the time to come up FREELY and ask if I wanted to hear about his FAMILY and their EXPERIENCE in one of the WORST manmade disasters this world has seen. It ROCKED. But in the worst, most devastating way possible. I had no ACTUAL words to respond to her statement of “That’s cool,” so I just shook my head and distanced myself more.
We were to meet with a hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor) and hear her speak on her experiences. It was beyond amazing to have such real stories as part of our trip. It was great to connect a broad tragedy to real struggle. Like I said before, I am angry at our atrocities. She had much to say (in English)-how the blast looked and felt was especially made real for me. She was burned on her arms and legs and had to have surgery on her eyelid and hands. She had been working in the field (she was around 8 years old) at the time of the blast. Blown to the ground, she called out to friends who had been working nearby, but they were all killed instantly. She went to the river, which was full of dead bodies and injured individuals trying to cool themselves, then went home to look for her parents. She was lucky enough to find them. When school time came around (the blast was in August), school proceeded like normal and classes were held anywhere they could be. Orphans (from the blast) and surviving children who had NOT been sent to the country when the air raids began (8-11 year olds were still in the city) ended up at shrines, eating, sleeping, and studying in the same place. Until 10:35, we were privy to her sharing of a real and terrible tragedy of her past.
At the end, we asked questions. Ethan asked if she thought humans would able to, essentially, uninvent something as powerful as the A bomb. She answered that the bomb takes money and she would love to see the money go to better things and places. She is working (and has been her whole life) to raise awareness about, and fight against, the use of nuclear weapons. She had a stroke six months prior and has had great difficulty regaining her speech. She is every bit a hero to me.
Tamara asked how Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as bombing locations, differed. Nagasaki was a mountainside apparently whereas Hiroshima was a full fledged city. Hiroshima was August 6, 1945. Nagasaki was bombed August 9, 1945. (I REALLY hope those dates are correct, because I am going to feel like SUCH an idiot if they’re wrong, kind of like how I said the time difference between the East Coast and Japan was 19 hours. Yeah…)
My question was about the healing or pseudo-healing that she underwent post-bombing. She was one of 25 women who received treatment in the U.S. and was teaching Americans about the violence of nuclear weapons. She then returned to Japan and taught Japanese people the same thing. She began going to church and through talking with the pastor and fellow survivors, she has healed greatly. She was very angry at the Japanese government initially for not doing more to support the survivors of the bombing. (Many people were.) She said how, on the train, she felt so isolated because of her scars and how she was seen as contaminated. People did not want to touch her; no one wanted to marry her. Often, survivors of the bombing have a great deal of guilt.
It was a very eye-opening, very enjoyable experience. Due to her stroke, her English was sometimes hard to understand, but she was a great individual to listen to and learn from. Before we had gone down to the separate meeting room (in the basement, under the museum) to hear Ms. Matsubara, Sensei bought us all tickets to get into the museum after her presentation (she had an accompanying slideshow that was a wonderful addition to her talk). We then were free to stay at the museum, get lunch on our own, and meet at the hotel at 1:30pm in order to taxi to the station and get on the shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto.
The Japanese like Obama. In the middle of the museum, at the gift shop (between the museum and the hall of artifacts), there was a t-shirt for sale that read “Obamajority”. Yeahhhhh!
At the end of the museum, where all the declarations of peace sit from all the world leaders who have visited or who have written to the museum pledging peace, there was a letter from the mayor of Hiroshima that read “We are part of the Obamajority. Yes we can” in relation to ridding the world of nuclear weapons and bringing peace to all nations and peoples.
I didn’t think I would see the museum ever again, let alone this soon. On the first floor is a scale model of Hiroshima, more specifically the area of the city that was the most destroyed by the bomb due to its close proximity to the hypocenter. Two models exist-a before and an after. A woman standing next to the models has a tour guide look about her and I’m sure she was wearing something that identified her as someone who could answer questions. She approached me as if I didn’t understand the signs written in English and didn’t understand what the models signified. I was kinder to her than I was to Nicole-I answered that I thought I understood. She started to tell me, with relation to the “after” model, that one man survived from the rest house and in an elementary school two rivers from the A-Bomb Dome, a female teacher and one female student survived. In both cases, the people were in the basement of the building at the time of the blast. The man in the rest house, I think, was the survivor’s (Mito Kosei’s) grandfather. Walked upstairs and across into the artifacts section (past the gift shop and “Obamajority” tee). Good as always, in the worst possible way of course. I had been close to Abhi and Ethan at certain points in the museum, but as I went at my own pace, I was often alone, left (pleasantly) to ruminate and be sullen at times.
I walked back to the hotel via 7-11 for lunch (not really “via” because of the Red Sea I had to part to GET to 7-11). I bought two onigiri (literally THE BEST and THE EASIEST lunch food EVER-rice balls wrapped in seaweed with innards of either salmon or tuna or roe or seaweed or egg or…) and a squeeze bag/bottle of aloe yogurt. I went into the lobby of the hotel to eat my second onigiri (ate my first and drank the yogurt en route back, but while I was STOPPED; it is uncommon to eat and walk simultaneously, though nowadays it is more often seen; BUT I try to blend in as much as possible) and wait. I got on AOL and deleted the mass craziness that comes in the form of the American Jewish World Service, ONE, Move On, and other groups I want to be part of, but just aren’t yet.
Many others arrived and we waited a little longer. Mariko, due to her having a Rail Pass (very handy for traveling around the country-gets you through train stations fast), was catching an earlier train to Kyoto. We taxied to the station a little while later, I bought myself a Hiroshima Carp towel (I have YET to see a game/be in Hiroshima for long enough to see a game BUT I am a fan nonetheless). On the shinkansen platform, I witnessed another act of “couple chivalry”-a girl and guy walking together (sorry for all the hetero couples, but it gets better later) and he took her bag from her and carried it…
Kyoto and Tokyo to come…
My family is great-I love them. And they love each other. No one tells another to “get out” or “go away”. They are close and caring and they have let me part way into their lives. For that, I am so grateful. I was talking with Otoosan once about Hanako-she went to the number one high school in Morioka, but he said she “failed” because she is now at Yokohama rather than some other prestigious school most Ichikoo (ichi number one, koo high school) students set their sights on. It is interesting that he used the word “failed”…
I love how the lights in the house DON’T turn on automatically after pushing the switch or pulling the cord. It makes you patient.
Continuing to learn with each passing day, but clearly NOT learning how to be succinct. Oh well, I’m sharing experiences with you and THEY matter to me and YOU matter to me. J
Always just an email away, Hannah
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