Redhii no Hinkaku

After the past week, grinding out lessons and making my way through the day in-day out routine I’ve established, I was rewarded with the most amazing treat: my dad, visiting me for the weekend! I am a well-known daddy’s girl, so when my father told me he’d be in Asia for a business conference this month, naturally I was over the moon! After a few days of meetings and his own adventures, I met him on Thursday evening at the Kitakami station.

I arrived at the station early enough for the arrival of the first shinkansen, but unfortunately, I had neglected to tell him which exit to use. So hoping for the best, I stood at the gate on the West Exit, watching people come up the escalator as local trains came through. Then, the first shinkansen arrived. I looked eagerly for another Western face, standing on my toes, craning to see around banners and columns. No such luck. The next train would arrive in about 20 minutes, so I settled against a dummy oni to wait. At that time of night, people were coming back to Kitakami from work and students coming home from club activities. Other students were milling around the station as well, but I didn’t pay them much attention. 

But I noticed one teenage boy milling a little close to me. I’d move from the gate to the wall, and he’d shift position across the station. I went to stand by the oni, and he moved to the gate. After a while, I pulled out my Nook for some reading and forgot about him…until he walked up behind me, and stood right next to my shoulder and about a head taller than me. He said nothing, didn’t clear his throat, but held his badly cracked iPhone in my line of vision. I thought he was showing me the damage…then I read the screen.

“We have sexual intercourse”

Oh the things I could have said, the cards I could have played. And yet, to avoid making a scene, I rolled my eyes, said “Okoru” and he walked away. Whether or not he was put up to it by friends is entirely up for debate, but wow. Just, wow. 

I would say his English was good, but with as many translator apps as there are, I don’t think I can give him full credit. And there was no punctuation. So. Yeah.

I went back to the gate to watch people coming up the escalator from the last shinkansen. As I stood there, growing more concerned and considering driving to the other side, I heard a voice over my shoulder say “Konbanwa.”

And there was Dad! I have gone months without seeing my family before, when I was in college, but this is different. Being in another country, living half a world away makes that distance just that much more profound. Skype and email helps keep us close in one way, but there is nothing like hugging a family member around the neck and know they’re here for you.

If you're wondering how much my dad cares, here's a list of everything he carried here in his suitcase for me:

2 pairs of shoes

a decomposing copy of "A Light in the Attic" 

My "How to Mellify a Corpse" book

a framed picture of my grandmother, Haruko

a very heavy bottle of vitamins

and an even heavier bag of dried mango

All together, it weighed almost 7 lbs!

Our first mission was to get some food in the man. Chatting the whole way, we went out for some fast Japanese food (gyuudon) and to give Dad a chance to meet his roommate for the weekend: the kiwi, James Lyall. Many thanks to James for opening up him home to a complete stranger. I mean, James knows me: shouldn’t that send red flags up for any other living person with a lick of common sense?

I still had to work on Friday, so my dad got a chance to explore Kitakami on his own. He’s done a LOT of solo travel, so there was no concern. He’s been to Japan recently too, so he knows what’s up. He’s a savvy dude. Reportedly, he visited the Kitakami heritage store, Tenshochi Park, the Michinoku Folklore Village…walking everywhere from the station! 

Suwa-jinja Shrine

That evening, James, Dad and I went out for dinner. No plans? No reservations? For once, actually not a problem! We went into Kitakami just jonesing for some “Itarian.” As we walked down the street, James suggested swinging by our favorite pizza place, Italian Kitchen Mountee, to see if we could get seats. We hadn’t had much luck in the past, but the couple of times we have gone, we haven’t been disappointed: Junya (who speaks great English) makes PHENOMENAL pizzas and orgasmic desserts. As luck would have it, there was a free table and the party officially began with beers for them and wine for me. Seriously, if you come to Kitakami (for whatever reason) do everything in your power to secure a reservation at Mountee! My recommendations:

Antipasta appetizer

Peperoncino pizza

Funghi pizza

Dolce sampler—tiramisu, cheesecake and raspberry panna cotta.

 In Dad’s words: “Custard. Uh-oh.”

Junya also brought us a pizza he made by mistake…along with a little dish of honey. I know what you’re thinking, but honestly, white pizza and a drizzle of honey! We were skeptics and now we are believers, reborn in the eyes of the pizza gods! 

After dinner, we made our way to Bar Roots for another drink and some Japanese reggae atmosphere. Remember: Welcome to Roots; don’t ask questions. 

A horticulturalist to the bone

On Saturday, James was heading to Sendai for an engagement party and Dad and I were going to get to spend some quality time together. First, however, I had to repay James for the favor of hosting my father. What better way to repay such kindness than with pancakes? So, our grand day out consisted of showing him one of the second hand stores in Kitakami (he was pretty impressed by the gross abundance of manga and intrigued by the UFO-style claw machines), walking through Kitakami to see a temple, the leftover bamboo and paper wishes from Tanabata, and to do some shopping at the 100 en store. The entire time, we were stalked by the campaign vans, screaming at us, imploring us to vote for each candidate. 

 

 

...before eating it.

Always a good role model, Dad plays with his food...

By then, it was time for lunch at Kappa Zushi, then driving to Otokoyama hill and climbing up to the statue of Yasuragi no zo. I was a little embarrassed by how little I know about Kitakami still including the significance of the beautiful goddess. 

Then we drove back down the hill and to Tenshochi park. We walked through the shop there looking at the traditional products of Kitakami including cast iron, nanbu kata zome (a sort of Japanese tye-dye), zogan bori woodwork (wood boxes, coasters and chopstick rests inlaid with tiny mother-of-pearl in beautiful designs), sambei, and oni masks. Then we walked along the Kitakami looking for birds. Dad got me into bird watching at an early age, and the man is impressive in his knowledge, picking out details while I searched through my birthday present: a book of Japanese birds! 

By then, it was about halfway through the afternoon and I was pretty tired, not sure about him. I feel bad that I was only able to give him a sampling of Kitakami. There are so many beautiful shrines, other museums, another great temple…but in one day, even scratching the surface can be a challenge. Instead, we went back to James’ and chilled in the A/C while Dad showed me pictures from his and Mom’s trip to Holland. Following, we went back into Kitakami for a traditional Japanese dinner. 

So in many restaurants in Japan, you can open the restaurant and point at the picture of what appeals to you. We went into one store with some appetizing looking food in the window…and discovered the models outside would be our only available visuals. Thanks to some picture-taking on my part, we were able to order. Again, I am humbled. But we eventually got our food (ramen for me, ebi tempura for him) and watched a Japanese variety show. This one was about exotic pets including a joey and a baby monkey in a blue sweater. 

After that, we grabbed some ice cream to go at Strawberry Cone and went back to my apartment for a Skype date with my mom and brother. Earlier in the day, Dad was walking around my place taking pictures like a C.S.I., taking pictures of my bathroom, kitchen and main room. It was mostly for my mom’s benefit because I still haven’t sent home any pictures of my place. I wanted to wait until I made it look more homey (I still want a small sofa or something for entertaining and some proper mood lighting), but it’s been 4 months and a mother’s patience stretches only so thin. Love you, Mom!

While we waited for my mom to log onto Skype, we ate our ice cream and I showed Dad some of my own pictures and shared a little more about my previous experiences. The four of us ended up talking for about an hour and a half before we called it quits on our end, completely bushed. It was a little surreal after so many weeks of talking to the three of them on my computer to have one of those faces sitting next to me and talking to the other two. It felt great, in a word. I love my family and felt so close to them at that point, in more ways than one. 

So today, I picked Dad up from James’ and drove him to the station at 8am. He told me he was glad to see I’m doing well, and he knows I’m going to be alright. His encouragement and confidence in me gave me confidence in turn. Now I’m burning to not only get back into the schools for these last three days but blaze my way through the rest of the school year. I have to remind myself that they believe in me and are proud of me. I definitely am often too critical of myself, which wrecks havoc on my self-esteem, but knowing that they are behind me and have such faith in me: I can relax. As my mom said last week

“Remind yourself… ‘Ms. Frizzle is fiction and I don’t have to be her my first year.’” 

I have to do what I can and take pride in that. Be happy in your abilities and others will be happy with you. I sound like a fortune cookie, saying that, but it’s what I’ve taken away from this past week. I love my family and I’m so thrilled that I was able to share my new life with my dad and show him what I’ve done so far. 

Now, if only my brother would come visit…