Seattle -> Tokyo

April 4th, 2006 - Seatac

Still waiting to board. Compared to the tedium of waiting to board and then the fear and loathing involved in takeoff, a 10+ hour flight seems pleasant.

April 5th, 2006, Tokyo (Okamoto)

Finally landed. I was wrong about the flight seeming pleasant. It was a grueling ordeal only made interesting by the occasional wailing of the 3 year old girl behind me (Chiho-chan). I was finally able to fall into a state of semi-consciousness after playing a successful game of "inai, inai, bah" with her. She later brought me candy as a gift. (I would have preferred ear plugs but it's the thought that counts.)

Finally landed. They must have expanded Narita airport because it took me about 15 minutes, even with the conveyors, to walk to baggage claim. I started to feel like I was in an episode of the twilight zone. Regardless, I went through immigration, baggage claim and customs in record time.

My sister in-law Yuki and her sons Kazuki and Yuma were waiting for me as I exited. Yuki looked genki (healthy & happy). Kazuki at 10 years old is already a handsome boy with the good sense of his mother and the kindness of his father. Yuma (3 years old) although not as handsome as Kazuki, will most likely rule the world someday. So I'll be nice to him now so that he remembers me fondly in later years. Perhaps he'll make me Emperor of Antarctica.

Tatsuyuki and Shoko (my wife's dad and mom) were waiting for me at Yuki's. We had dinner and then Hiroko's mom commenced to drilling me about my reasons for going on the pilgrimage. I threw out two or three half-baked reasons, but she wasn't buying them. I guess after almost 50 years of marriage to a Japanese businessman her bullshit-o-meter has been finely tuned. How do I explain to a 72 year old woman that I really have no reason other than getting out of the rut that I've put myself into over the past few years when all she cares about is whether or not her deadbeat American son in-law is going to provide for her daughter and granddaughters? The answer is, I don't. So I'm going to stick to my "I love a challenge" and "because it's there" lines. Who knows, maybe if I repeat them enough I'll start believing them myself.

I love Hiroko's parents, but after almost 20 straight hours of traveling I would have rather spent a quiet evening with Yuki and the boys.

Thought for the day
"Try to avoid any and all social events on the day of arrival in Japan. Arriving a day earlier than you told your relatives and sleeping on a bench in the airport will better prepare you for meeting them."

April 6, 2006 - Tokyo

I'm up at 5AM. I've been battling a last minute cold given to me by my daughter Yuri. The air in the long plane ride really made my throat sore as well. If I can sleep and eat right over the next couple of days I should be OK for the pilgrimage.

Yuki's husband Haruki, and I will go to the bank to exchange my traveler's checks and then to the post office to open a cash account. The account will allow me to get money from any post office in Japan just like an ATM. This will be extremely handy in the country areas of Shikoku where banks are scarce. Later in the day Yuki, the boys and I will travel to Hiroko's parents' house in Isehara, a suburb of a suburb of Yokohama south of Tokyo in Kanagawa prefecture. We'll have dinner, Shoko will interrogate me some more and then I'll stay over. So much for slipping in and out of Tokyo quietly.

Unfortunately, I was denied a post office account because I don't have a permanent Japanese address. No problem, I'll play the good tourist and just use my travelers checks. With the post office account kyboshed Haruki and I just hung out at the coffee shop talking about the pilgrimage. It's amazing how married men my age regardless of nationality instinctively understand my need to go on this pilgrimage. He vowed to help me snowball Hiroko's mom so that she won't worry. What a guy!

The weather in Tokyo is perfect. Cool in the mornings. Warm and sunny in the afternoons. I found a park near Yuki's home. It was made from a former noble's grounds. It's almost magical how this place provides quiet and solitude right in the middle one of the most populated places on the planet. Although Edo (Tokyo) is young by Japanese standards, I'm awed by the 300 year old buildings and statues that the park contains. I wonder how many people over the centuries have visited these grounds looking for peace and solitude like myself?

Thought for the day
"Peace is where you find it."

April 7, 2006 - Isehara

Woke up early again. Took a 3 hour walk around the rice fields and streets of Isehara. I lived here for a time in 1992 and am feeling nostalgic about the place. I'm a little sad because some of the old houses and bamboo groves have been replaced by newer homes and apartments. Progress is inevitable I guess and I can understand why an old farmer would want the comfort of a modern home as compared to "hot in the summer" and "cold in the winter" houses built early in the last century. However, I was happy to see that some of the old wood farmhouses still remain.

Planting time is just beginning and the rice fields are a buzz with activity. The farmers building up and leveling their rice fields that will soon be flooded by the nearby levies. The long rows of newly planted daikon (white radishes) and edamame (soy beans). Protected under plastic to shield them from a late frost. It's almost as beautiful and sublime as harvest time. With its smell of burning rice stalks, slate gray skies and the early winter winds blowing down from the nearby mountains.

Couldn't get the idea of using the post office out of my head. So I cooked up a plan where I would use my wife's parents' address as my Japanese address (that's me, high hopes and low morals). So after a typical discussion involving broken English, broken Japanese and a call to my wife, we were off to the post office. Hiroko's folks were going to offer themselves as cosigners for my account. (I couldn't get them to buy into my fake address plan.)

I won't go into detail but let's just say that the post office idea failed quickly and permanently. Apparently, my fake address plan would have been a felony. Just think, if my Japanese were any better I could be in a Japanese prison right now carving a katana out of soap.

Thought for the day
"Missing those things that have passed on is ok, but the new things that have replaced them, will themselves be replaced and the next generation will lament their passing with equal sincerity."

April 8, 2006 - back in Tokyo

Did some last minute shopping and got my pack ready. Later in the day I attended my nephew's baseball practice next to the Tama river. It always amazes me how disciplined and serious the Japanese are when it comes to sports. There was no horsing around or anything like we used to do. It was drill, drill, drill. The neat part was that none of the kids complained (openly) and seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves. The coaches all stood around smoking and laughing though. I guess they earned that right having gone through the same type of rigorous practice themselves for most of their youth.

The practice was cut short by a wicked thunderstorm. We don't have thunderstorms that often in the Northwest (although it has been known to rain a little) so I enjoyed the crisp and highly charged air as it ran over the Tama basin.

Thought for the day
"My nephews in Tokyo are young and the bonds I have with them are strong. I hope they will endure as we grow older."