Familiar Faces

This past week, a small miracle happened: Mom and Chelsea visited me in Japan. I had the most astounding week! It turns out that I'm quite a bad tour guide, but my Japanese friends happen to know a lot about getting around in Japan and they were so very generous and we consequently had quite a fine week! (Of course, I think I could have just stared at them all day every day and really had a marvelous time.) Our week started a bit awkwardly when Chelsea wasn't able to board the long flight to Japan. It was a very complicated situation but to make a long story short, she couldn't board the flight and Mom could. So Mom went ahead and Chelsea was stuck in the L.A. airport (which consequently is an AWFUL airport) for the night until the ticket offices opened up about 10 hours later. Eventually, Mom made it safe and sound (though with pretty puffy eyes) and about 8 hours after that, Chelsea arrived as well! It could have been pretty messy, but thanks to some really nice people and Mom and Chelsea's endurance, everybody made it to Japan! On Sunday, we had big fun in the Aso mountain range! My host family volunteered to take us and we enjoyed a lot of things. First, we went to the actual caldera of an active volcano. The Aso mountains were all at one point volcanoes, which makes sense. But one of them is still active and available for tourists to peek at. The day we went happened to be a particularly active day and we were smothered in toxious fumes so we didn't stay too long. But it was fun to be close and "see" the volcano! :) Next, we had lunch at a very popular restaurant with a rocking Japanese garden in the back. It was Mom and Chelsea's first Japanese restaurant experience so I think it was interesting for them! After lunch, we went to Aso shrine. It's a huge wooden establishment and it just feels ancient and sacred-I like it! We found out how lucky we were and bought some interesting snacks as well.

On Monday, we went to Kumamoto Castle. We trooped about and saw what there was to see and enjoyed the sakura in full bloom. It was memorable. Then, that evening, we went to a dinner at a friend's house. They had obviously been cooking all day by the amount of food that was prepared when we got there! And we got to help make some soba noodles for dinner. :) My soba noodles looked like udon (way too thick!), but Mom and Chelsea made some delicious ones! Some more friends came over and we enjoyed a fiest! It was fun to talk with all of them. After we had eaten all that we possibly could, we enjoyed some harmonica music and hula dancing (the guests present at dinner were quite talented!), and finally, we got to write some Japanese calligraphy! "Shyodou" we learned, is much harder than it looks! But we practiced our very best, and Mom and Chelsea got to take home handmade plaques to display their own Shyodou. I'm just starting to learn how to write and recognize these characters, so it was really interesting for me. Mom was a little intimidated at first, I think, but her kanji looks great now! And Chelsea's kanji, predictably, were amazing. It was a fun day and a special evening. I think we three enjoyed it very much!

On Tuesday evening, we had a special adult English class. Every week I taught this class, but this week was the last class of the "term". To celebrate Mom and Chelsea's visit, we decided to have a potluck! Everyone brought delicious goodies and we all enjoyed speaking in English! This group of people has really quite outstanding English and they're very easy-going, fun people. It was such a great time!

The next day we took the train bound for Nagasaki. The train ride was quite incredible-mountains on one side, the ocean on the other. It was an adventure in itself! When we reached our destination, the town where we THOUGHT the ferry left from, we discovered that we couldn't buy a ferry ticket in that town! We did have a nice picnic lunch there instead and climbed to the top of a random pyramid dance club (see video). It was an unexpected change of events, but once we were there, I thought it was really pretty awesome to be with my Mom and Chelsea. It didn't really matter that our plans had been rearranged-I had a marvelous time just being with them. We eventually took the train back the way we had come and reached Kumamoto city in time for it to start raining! Our prefered course of action was to stay out of the rain, so we headed for Shimotori, a long, covered expanse of shops! We found some souveniers and when we'd had enough, we headed back for Ozu.

On Thursday, we hung out around my apartment and stared at each other! Mom and I thought it was great and Chelsea got a little stir-crazy (understandably), so she and I took off and went to a cute little stationary shop and a couple of grocery stores. Chelsea knows more about Japanese food than I do, so I learned quite a lot on our little adventure. When the evening came, it was time to go hang out at a restaurant downtown with some friends. One friend is the owner of the restaurant, so she was able to obtain some vegan food for Chelsea (and PLENTY of food for the rest of us!) We were absolutely stuffed when all was said and done. We had a lot of laughs and really enjoyed each others company.

The next day, with A LOT of help and guidance from Japanese friends, we finally made it to Nagasaki. Who knew that taking the bus would be so complicated!! After we made it, we visited several atomic bomb memorials. It was a very sad day, but we were glad we went. First, we visited the city's Peace Park. It was constructed around the remains of a prison which was the closest building to the hypocenter of the bombs explosion. All of the people in the prison died and the building was completely destroyed. All that remained were the foundations which still remain in the Peace Park today. Also in the Peace Park were statues from many different countries. There were lovely flowers, and thousands of gorgeous paper cranes folded by students and other visitors hoping for world peace. Next, we saw the site where the a-bomb was dropped. And by the site was the city's bomb museum. We thought it was very sad! It was also very graphic. There were lots of artifacts found in the remains of the bombing such as bloody clothes and a helmet with the remains of a human skull still attached. There were lots of pictures too. The whole thing was rather shocking and uncomfortable. Which is a good thing. We were glad we went, I think, but it was all in all a sad day.

And the next and final day was no less sad! For me anyway! Because that was the day that Mom and Chelsea left Japan. :'( But they came. And that will be what I choose to remember about that week. :D We had a marvelous time, and even more than that, I remembered what it was like to spend time with some people I know and love. I hope they will be able to come to Japan again! And I hope that YOU will too!