Genuinely Japanese

(concerning the weekend of April 09. and 10.)

When I first got in contact with my school here in Takaoka, the person I wrote to was a woman named Kana Earashi. But about a week before I set out for Japan she told me that she won't be working at Takaoka campus anymore when I would be arriving here. I was a bit sad about that, since she seemed like a very nice person, so last Friday I wrote her a short mail just asking if I might be able to meet her because I also had brought a small souvenir for her from Finland. On Saturday she called me and invited me to visit her and her family at their home. This was to be my first contact with a genuine Japanese household and I could hardly believe my luck to have this chance already now, barely a few days into my exchange.

Kana picked me up from Senshinen
and we drove together by bike about 15 to 20 minutes to their house. I have to say at this point that, before, I had made fun of the fact that since Takaoka, or rather Toyama prefecture, is in Japanese proportions more like a countryside area, there probably wouldn't be anything else here apart from ricefields. I was not so far off with my prediction.

The area of Takaoka campus, where I live now, lies somewhat on the outskirts of the city and here are indeed ricefields and quite many of them. And it's great! The rice is just barely starting to grow, so it looks like nothing more than rectangular patches of lawn separated by narrow walk and drive ways. The most houses around here are also of a more traditional type. So when we drove through them, I did feel a bit like being transported into Gibli's wonderful anime 'Tonari no Totoro' – My Neighbour Totoro. Of course, this is modern Japan, with all it's electric lines and cars and plastic, but many houses are pretty much like those one can see for example in Totoro. 

 Takaoka ricefields

And of course Kana's family's house is one like that! Meaning: the typical entry area, where there is a stone floor and a step up onto the 'real' wooden floor of the house. Shoes are of course taken off upon entry and left in the entrance area. All rooms except the kitchen, toilet/bath and washkitchen are laid with the thick, typical Japanese ricemats, the tatami. The doors are sliding doors, tables are low and one usually kneels before them on flat pillows.

Absolutely wonderful. I could have stayed at that place immediately and without hesitation. Kana's mother, a small woman with light gray hair, was putting a meal before me almost the same second Kana had gotten out of me that I'd only had breakfast so far. When I had introduced myself in Japanese she was immediately chatting away at a pace that left me with my mouth gaping, stammering 'wakarimasen', 'I don't understand'. She was so cute, all the time asking while Kana tried to translate the things I didn't understand, never leaving me the time to think about an answer in Japanese to the things I did understand. So sweet. And if I had thought she was cute, then the granny really topped things off. Because first she hid, because she was shy that a foreigner was in the house, then I was told she had went to change her clothes. Eventually she came, back bend, smiling, shuffling into the driveway as Kana and I were about to go to a temple that lies directly next to their house.

 small temple garden

A temple. In direct neighbourhood. In addition to the general awesomeness of the area they live in.

I was all the time waiting to just wake up from that dream already. So, yes. What more can I say. Beautiful temple, but then temples I have seen before on our Japan trip with my friends in 2009. But the house... it was definitely the highlight of the weekend.

Another very nice thing was that a friend of Kana's was coming there to pick us up and show me around. Maybe not as nice was the fact that she brought her family, which apart from her husband included her children. Two boys, maybe 6 and 8, and a little girl, maybe 3 years old. I mean, don't get me wrong, they're very cute children, the girl an adorable little thing and the oldest very sweet as he tried to make more and more contact with me over the day, asking Kana for English sentences that he would then direct at me, offering me his can of juice or bag of sweets. Still, everybody who knows me and my opinion of children will probably have already gone like ”Oooooh shit....”

And believe me, if you thought Finnish children are bad (and I do think they are) they are nothing compared to Japanese children. Since at 6 they enter a schoolsystem that must be one of the hardest and strictest around, it seems their parents are of the opinion that they must be allowed all and everything in their freetime or before they enter school. The noise level in the car could have easily held it's ground against a soccer stadion. They had obviously never, ever been taught to use a safety belt, because they were moving freely, jumping over and around the seats from front over middle to back row. They were throwing around at least 5 balls ranging in size from soccer ball to those little rubber balls that jump very high. They also played around with badminton bats and a soft 'fake' baseball bat.

'Abunai', meaning 'dangerous' or 'not very safe', was one of the words the parents were using constantly, supposedly to get the caboodle to calm down. The kids didn't seem to be especially impressed.

I learned a new word though.

So, while performing a world record feat in patience and self-restraint, I got to see the sea a ten minute drive north of Takaoka as well as the big city park, which included a small zoo. 

 see the sea

 a strange building on a rock at the beach

To watch the ocean we stopped at a small, very beautiful beach, on which there seemed to be more seashells than sand. I couldn't help myself. I really tried, but in the end I did have my pocket full of them and it wasn't even completely my own fault. Kana's friend and her children were doing their best to bring me all the most beautiful shells after they noticed my interest in them. We stayed for maybe half an hour, then drove back into the city to the park.

I'd rather not talk about the zoo, but the rest was wonderful! It was filled with people and the wider paths were lined tightly with booths, selling mostly food. And why all the commotion? Because they have reached Toyama prefecture.

When I drove by train towards Nagoya from Chubu airport on Wednesday I had seen the first signs of them, earlier there in the south. Now, a few days later, they have come here as well.

The sakura, the cherry trees, are blooming. Hanami, as the time of the cherry blossoms is called in Japan, has arrived. Some trees are just barely starting to open their buds, others are wrapped completely in a cloud of soft pink. From far away in Europe or the US one might not be able to understand the obsession of the Japanese about this whole thing, but standing between those trees I actually think I get it. I have not actually done the 'cherry blossom watching' yet though, which as far as I know involves a blanket under a cherry tree and lots of good food and sake (ricewine). Therefore it might be that I'm wrong and they do actually celebrate Hanami for its fleeting beauty and the way that it marks another beginning in the neverending cycle of life, and not only for the same reason that many Finns celebrate Juhannus (which is mostly to get really drunk). But as I know many Finns who celebrate the light and hope of the longest day of the year, their traditions and sauna and good food, I am sure there are many Japanese for whom Hanami has not only to do with drinking but with a tradition held dear. And all the young Japanese would hardly pose under the cherry trees with their little children if it didn't mean something deeper to them. 

Also little Ri-chan seemed, with the simple honesty that little children possess, very impressed by the sakura.