Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1
Vietnam
Chapter 2
New Home
in Kofu
Chapter 3
Hong Kong
China,
&
Korea
Chapter 4
Yamanashi
Chapter 5
Society
Chapter 6
Hospital
Chapter 7
Nikko
Chapter 8
Holiday
Greetings
Chapter 9
Culture
Chapter 10
Holiday
Trip:
Kansai
&
Kyushu
Chapter 11
Mores
Chapter 12
Hankos
& Brush-
writing
Chapter13
Friends
Chapter 14
Festivities
Chapter 15
Okinawa
&
Nagasaki
Chapter 16
Hong Kong
&
Australia
Chapter 17
Special
People
&
Events
Chapter 18
Coming
to
Japan
Chapter 19
Letter to
Editor
Chapter 20
Teaching
English
Chapter 21 Hamamatsu
Chapter 22
Women's
Relation-
ships
Chapter 23
Reflections
on
Education
Chapter 24
Nephews'
Visit
Chapter 25
Thailand,
Korea
&
Home
Chapter 26
Taking
Stock
Chapter 17
Special People and Spring Events
April 7, 1996
Dear Friends,
When we are asked by Japanese what it is we like best about Japan, the answer is always the same. The people. The second answer might vary. The trees. The rich history and culture. The flowers. The beauty of the mountains and other natural wonders, etc. But the first reply is always, "The people." Therefore, it would be doing an injustice to not tell you more about some the special people we know here.
Mrs. Hanawa is more than an amma (massager). She does acupuncture and is an "advisor." In the words of one of the English teachers at Eiwa, "She has good hands." But she has much more than that. She has a good heart. A great sense of humor. A gift for drawing. A taste for Western goodies. A good collection of classical music and the belief that the Philadelphia Orchestra is #1 in the world. Her English is very limited -- as is Marie's Japanese, -- but she says that massage is an international language. This week there was much laughter as Mrs. Hanawa carefully chose the word, "bank" in trying to communicate, and Marie responded with, "Hai, ginko."
Mrs. Hanawa is not as restrained in her laughter as are most Japanese women. In fact, laughter is not a good word here as it means something raucous. However, in this case there is much wholehearted laughter and enjoyment of foibles and fractured attempts at each others' language. She is very tender also, and at times has patted Marie's face, accompanying her gesture with words such as, "Mrs. Naito says you are a very kind sensei (teacher)." (Mrs. Naito is her good friend who is being tutored in English by Marie.) This is also unusual because that kind of touching of one another in Japan is almost unheard of. Friends do not touch in greeting as we do in America. And it would be very rude to get someone's attention by touching them (such as a server in a restaurant.)
Traditionally in Japan, massagers are blind. In fact, when massage was introduced into Japan from China during the 6th and 7th centuries, only the blind could be trained. Mrs. Hanawa may be legally blind, but with the help of very thick lenses and looking closely, she is able to see some things. This makes her ability to draw seem even more incredible. When there is a communication impasse, Mrs. Hanawa will take her erasable slate and quickly sketch a picture to illuminate what she is trying to get across. How we wish the pictures were drawn on paper that could be saved rather than quickly erased. At one point all the animals of the Chinese astrological years were drawn to illustrate the discussion. Another time she rapidly drew a picture of Kumamoto castle, after we had traveled there. (Kumamoto is her hometown.) Another time there was a picture of a shrimp, eyes, feelers and all, when food was the topic.
The most striking thing about Mrs. Hanawa is her spirit -- even more than her gift for doing massage and acupuncture. Someone once asked if it would be unnerving to have her do acupuncture, since she has poor eyesight. But that was never a concern She feels with her hands for exactly where the needles should go -- and places them decisively. Now in the season of sinus congestion and spring pollen, the needles are placed directly in the forehead, sinus cavities on either side of the nose, neck as well as other sites. Relief is instant. The acupuncture for sore shoulder muscles isn't quite as immediate but still very effective.
Back to her spirit. When we first met, Emma happened to have the day off and interpreted for us. Questions directed to Marie included, "What are your hobbies?" When Mrs. Hanawa heard "baking," she said, "You like to bake. I like to eat. You can bake and I will eat." We laughed a lot that day, and it set the stage for much good-hearted fun. Since then she has enjoyed homemade cookies and muffins, and has served Marie tea and other Japanese treats, as well as giving many gifts. In addition, she is unwilling to accept her usual fee. This week an hour and half of acupuncture and full body massage (a combination of Swedish and Chinese) only cost the equivalent of $20! Another interesting note is that massage is performed with the subject fully clothed....quite different from the Western method....but just as effective. I wore shorts and a T-shirt (without confining underwear), but the Japanese slipped into outfits that looked like loose fitting pajamas.
When Sayaka first came to visit us as an exchange student in America, we were worried about her. She had moved around a lot. Even though we wanted her for a longer period of time, she would be staying with us for only a week before going to another family for the weekend --and then to an additional home for a couple of weeks. After that she would be moving again.
In our minds that would be very unsettling. In her shoes, we might feel rejected, or at the very least, disrupted. It would seem that we could never get comfortable before moving on to the next home.
When we asked Sayaka if she minded all that moving around, she said that it wasn't a problem. However, we were still concerned. She didn't talk a lot, and she spent a lot of time in her room. We wondered if she were unhappy, as we would be in similar circumstances. We wanted her to feel comfortable. And we knew from past experience with exchange students, and from our knowledge of Japanese culture, that she would be unlikely to complain if she were unhappy. What to do?
As is easy to do, we were unconsciously imposing our cultural bias onto the situation. As we have come to know Sayaka better, both in the U.S. and Japan, we realize that she was not having a problem. She was being Sayaka, an introspective, quiet, bright, well-informed young women, who simply presented herself as she is. There is no guile about her. Although she can be very quick to laugh or chat about numerous topics, her center is very quiet.
Visiting Sayaka's home in Japan helped us to understand her better. She lives at Minobu Temple with her father, mother, and 12- year-old sister. Her father is a Buddhist priest at the temple. It is the only home she has known.
Minobu Temple is the center of the Nichiren sect of Buddhism, a sect that dates back 750 years. The temple itself is a vast sprawling complex of impressive buildings amid fantastic gardens, forest, and mountains. It is known for its ancient weeping cherry trees that bloom early in April, as much as for its ascetic religion.
Sayaka's family home overlooks the main gate of the temple and is the size of a respectable ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn), and in fact serves as a ryokan of sorts for the Nichiren faithful who make pilgrimages to the temple. There are 32 buildings like Sayaka's home on the grounds, in addition to the main temple building, various worship halls, a school for training priests, shops, offices, cemeteries, etc. The oldest building is 600 years old. Many of the trees are several centuries older than that.
When we visited Sayaka, we were fortunate enough to spend the night at her home and we were awed by the beauty, peace, and harmony of the setting. Our quarters consisted of a 15-tatami room (a tatami is a straw mat roughly 3' x 6'), bath, sitting area, small balcony, and tokonoma (a recessed alcove with simple flower arrangement, hanging scroll or other traditional art forms). Our windows overlooked traditional gardens on one side and the main gate of the temple on the other. A delightful profusion of plum and cherry trees, in various stages of bloom, completed a beautifully composed picture.
The first day it was raining heavily, and the quiet was deep. We attributed the quietude to the rain.
However, the next day was bright and the date of the annual cherry blossom festival. Sayaka had told us that during that day and into April, cars and buses would be lined up for miles, bringing people from all over Japan to view the ancient weeping cherry trees in full bloom. The usual 10-minute ride from the train station in Minobu to the temple could now take up to 3 hours. We expected hustle and bustle. We had seen the food booths and other activities in preparation for the festival. We knew there would be koto music and tea ceremonies and other entertainment. With crowds we expected noise. However, the serenity, the quiet beauty of the temple grounds continued to amaze us. People spoke quietly, or little at all. It felt like a retreat. A koto ensemble playing under a weeping cherry tree outside the main temple further enhanced the mood.
At one point, a bus driver impatiently honked his horn in request for a motorist to unblock his way, only to be quickly quieted. Sayaka's father was apologized to by the parking attendant. Even that noise did not seem jarring, somehow. The temple grounds were enveloped in isolating tranquillity that stayed with us for several days after returning to the noise and pollution of the city.
Only through this experience could we come to better understand Sayaka. Minobu is her home. How could one live there, indeed grow up there, without having quiet in the center of her being?
When in America, she said to us, "Don't worry about me. I like to daydream a lot," she meant simply that. She was not unhappy. Simply meditating or being quiet. Being alone with her thoughts -- what we were each able to do more easily in the setting of Minobu, and have come to do more and more in Japan.
Although Sayaka was raised in the family of a Buddhist priest and possesses that quiet center we observed, she should not be mistaken for an ascetic herself. Far from it. She might be the most well informed exchange student that the program has experienced. When she was in a chatting mood, she could converse about many topics. She is gifted in art, athletics, and public speaking. And she possesses self-confidence that is strikingly different from most Japanese students we know. When she told us about an announcing contest she would be entering, we wished her luck and said we hope she would do well. She smiled sweetly, and said, without vanity, "I will."
We think that quiet self-confidence must come out of being raised in a special family. While in the US, Sayaka told us a lot about her family. We knew that her father was the oldest son of a Nichiren Buddhist priest and therefore, was preordained to follow in his father's footsteps. We knew that he was an avid reader and traveler and that he passed on a great deal of knowledge, interest in travels, and curiosity to Sayaka, his oldest daughter. He also is a talented photographer, another gift he passed on to his eldest daughter.
Her parents' marriage was an arranged one, and her mother's job is to play hostess to the pilgrim's who visited the temple. While we, along with Sayaka, Sayaka's sister, grandparents, and father, spent the day touring the temple grounds and enjoying the festivities, her mother stayed behind to clean our rooms, prepare our food, and take care of household duties. Throughout our stay, most of our contact with her was through her serving us.
One of the most touching memories of our visit with the family was the formal fitting of kimonos for both of us. Sayaka's grandmother is trained to put on the kimono and offered to dress us. Sayaka's parents were generous in allowing us to try on their own personal formal kimonos, which they only wear for special occasions. We also got lessons in how to fold, store, and care for kimonos, from Sayaka's mother. Her father took portraits of us, and we are anxious to see how they turn out. (The formal portrait on our home page is one of the pictures he took at the time.)
Gifting --
If things continue the way they have been recently we aren't going to have to buy many groceries. We have been getting many gifts of food. As usual, fruit is still the most popular gift, but we are also getting traditional holiday food. Strawberries are sold here almost year-round. They are grown in Kyushu, the southernmost main island,often in large, plastic covered greenhouses. The beautiful (but bland tasting), expensive berries make an ideal gift. Oranges are also popular, and we now have three different bags of oranges that were given to us. For special occasions a box of specially wrapped fruit, including a grapefruit, a couple of apples, and 2 or 3 oranges sell for about $50. We have had a few of those given to us.
Recently we were given fresh spinach from a student's garden (Tom is jealous, because he is missing his garden), all kinds of produce, sweet potatoes, more Japanese sweets than we can remember, and various special "treats." Some of our friends are determined that we sample every kind of typical Japanese food possible. Ume boshi is a pickled plum that is very sour. It is picked from the tree while still green, soaked in brine and colored with a red dye -- which makes it look deceptively like a maraschino cherry! It is eaten with rice or as a side dish for breakfast. We were given a sampler of four types. Celebration rice is rice that is cooked with azuki beans and is a pink color. It is served for special celebrations in the family, such as graduations. Ohagi is a sweet that has mochi (pounded rice) in the middle and an outside layer of sweetened azuki bean paste. It is served for the vernal equinox. Those are some of our recent taste treats -- all of which have been "interesting" -- none of which we will crave when we return home.
The whole ritual of gifting is complicated and interesting, an art we will never sufficiently learn. As Tom has said many times, "You can't outgift the Japanese." On is a social obligation or debt that occurs whenever anyone does something for you. From being invited to a home to giving life a person accrues on. Some on (such as that owed to parents) cannot be repaid. All other on has to be repaid -- especially if you are Japanese! Usually, foreigners are not held to it (we aren't expected to understand it!), but we try to be sensitive to it, as much as we can.
An example occurred the first week we were here and many have happened since then. One of the teachers had worked very hard at getting our apartment in order, cleaning, buying food, and other supplies and presenting us with a bouquet of flowers and a vase to put them in. In appreciation, we gave her a Bruce Johnson T-shirt. The next day she gave us rose tea and two fancy desserts in response to our gift!
When we took gifts to friends to thank them for hospitality, we frequently would get gifts in return. Being a sensei (teacher) is a much-honored position, so students often bring gifts to Tom at school, and students Marie is tutoring at home often show up with a small gift. Therefore, we thought it would be a good idea to take small gifts to Marie's calligraphy teacher (who gave Carolyn lessons at no charge and who is unwilling to charge Marie the full fee). It seems that for every gift given, two or three are returned in kind. That exchange has ended in Marie's giving cooking lessons to Mrs. Ogawa and daughter, and the two of them practicing baking muffins and cookies as much as Marie practices calligraphy. (And now Mrs. Ogawa is bringing at least 3 or 4 kinds of Japanese food every week! She says she wants us to have all kinds of Japanese food.) More and more she is becoming my sister.
This weekend was the beginning of the Takeda Shingen celebration. Takeda Shingen was the powerful warlord of Yamanashi during the "warring period" of Japanese history -- during the second half of the 16th century. Had he not been killed about 1587, people (especially those living in Kofu!) think he would have become shogun of Japan. A statue of him dominates Kofu's town square, and one of the main streets and the primary shrine in town are named for him.
He certainly had the stuff that makes up a great conqueror. He overthrew his father and forced a son and a son-in-law to commit suicide because he became suspicious of their motives. He was so highly respected by his opponents that his family kept his death secret for a year, while a double (maybe his brother) caused the opposition to think that Shingen was still alive. (There is a movie about this entitled "Kagemusha" which we saw before coming to Japan this time.) He never built a castle, saying that his army was his castle. His battle flag is famous for its symbolism of his army. It contains the kanji for woods, mountain, fire and wind. (As quiet as the woods, as strong as a mountain, as fierce as fire, and as swift as the wind.)
It's unfortunate that the parade celebrating the achievements of Takeda Shingen doesn't quite measure up to his life. The parade line consisted of hundreds of men and women in samurai outfits, broken up into units sponsored by neighboring towns or companies. Armed with bows and arrows, spears, swords, or 16th century muskets, they marched up and down the main street of town. The marching was accompanied by a cacophony of sounds....a bellow lunged announcer, the amplified sounds of horses, blaring trumpets, blowing of conch shells, sounding of gongs, and the incessant pounding of large (taiko) drums. Added to the mixture were the lighting of smudge pots and the lights of several TV film crews. All in all it was a lot of fun for us. Unfortunately, not all of the participants seemed to have their hearts in being in the parade. Some looked thoroughly bored and a few seemed to resent being there! After all, a lot of them had probably been told by their bosses that it would be quite an honor to represent the company or town in the glorious event. Others seemed to be having a great time. Hard to sustain for three hours of marching, stopping, waiting, and dodging horse droppings.
Jackie, who marched in the parade a few years ago, told us that all of the costumes are authentic, made exactly as they were originally, and have to be fitted by professional dressers. Therefore, people have to be dressed early in the morning and wear very heavy uncomfortable outfits all day. It is no wonder that people look tired and unhappy by 8:00 p.m. She also said that it is very difficult to go to the bathroom with all of the clothing on! It is an honor to be a samurai in the parade, rather than a foot soldier, but those costumes are even more complex and uncomfortable. Also, it was obvious that many of the "samurai" were not used to riding horses. We expect that they would be very uncomfortable the next day!
A lot of tourist dollars come into the Kofu area because of the celebrations for Takeda Shingen. People come not only to attend the festival, but also to visit places associated with the life of Takeda. For example, he established many temples and shrines and people like to stop at the more significant ones.
We enjoyed watching the parade from a window seat of a second floor restaurant owned the family of an Eiwa teacher. The teacher's sister is in town for the 50th anniversary of her grandmother's death and the 17th anniversary of her father's death. She has lived in the U.S. for 25 years (the Southhamptons in the summer and West Palm Beach in the winter), and her sister wanted us to meet her. The building we were sitting in is on property that has belonged to the family since well before the war and was bombed by the U.S. during the war. It took a direct hit. We were told that their mother has always hated Americans because of that. When asked what her mother thought of her moving to the U.S. and marrying an American, the response was, "No comment." In spite of the topics that were sometimes discussed, it was a light, warm evening with people who were determined to show us a good time and overflowing Japanese hospitality.
On April 14th we will go to Mr. Nakayama's for one of his famous barbecues and then we will witness the reenactment of the battle of Kawanakajima. (kawa = river; naka = middle; jima = island) This was a famous battle between Takeda Shingen and his arch rival, Uesugi, which was won by Takeda. The highlight of the battle was when Uesugi, out of frustration or desperation, rode his horse directly into Takeda's camp and rode right up to him. Out of respect for his rival's actions (and maybe, a certain amount of shock?) Takeda told his guards not to harm Uesugi. That will be in the reenactment, along with a lot of noise and swordplay. (Please ask to see the video when we return home.)
In the weeks ahead we have a couple of trips planned. For Children's Day (5/5 Day) weekend we are going to Hamamatsu for the kite festival. It is something Tom has always wanted to do and we are looking forward to that. The weekend before that we are hoping to go to Takayama. It is a vacation area that is rarely frequented by foreign tourists, but a popular spot for the Japanese. We went there 3 years ago on our honeymoon trip, and it was our favorite spot in Japan. At that time we were approached by a policeman to have our pictures taken for a travel poster. Now we're wondering if we will see ourselves on display!
Please mark September 7th on your calendar and plan to help us celebrate our return home. We probably will be home sometime in August, so we should have time to unpack and organize a little for a party on that date. Unless we hear strong objections to that plan we will expect all of you to come see our videos, photo albums, slides, etc. (Do we hear any cries of, "Boring!!?") We will probably also welcome a covered dish or two, because we may have forgotten how to cook American food. If anyone is interested, we could give you a short list of foods we have missed and crave.
Thanks for your continuing support. We want to announce that our mothers take the prize for most faithful correspondents. Thanks!! And some of our siblings take the prize for lousiest letter-writers (you know who you are, but we don't want you to feel guilty.) However, we have no room to talk since we are among the world's worst correspondents under normal circumstances. Does the letter writing we have done during this hiatus make up for our many sins of omission over the years? Such as not writing to Marie's niece the whole two years she was in Africa or the year she was in Australia? (Sorry Wendi.) Seriously, we really do appreciate hearing from you, and your cards, letters, and phone calls are much appreciated.
The time is flying now. We are very busy, and we feel sad when we think about saying good-bye to many old and new friends. But we are also looking forward to coming home and getting our lives back to a different kind of flow.
Warm wishes,
Tom and Marie
