My First Visitors! Part 3

With a bit of pushiness, I was able to finagle a week off of work to spend more time with dad and Georgie. On Monday, we took a train to Osaka and did a little shopping. Dad patiently waited at Starbucks while Georgie and I shopped. Little did dad know, that Japan is the land of pens. So when we went into another store, he came with us, and we patiently waited while dad uncapped and scribbled, and chose a handful of new pens. Georgie was also amazed at all the beautiful paper.
At the end of the day, we descended to the basement of one of the department stores to get ourselves dinner. You may think that is an odd choice of places to go, but in Japan, all the major department stores have a basement filled with the most beautiful food ever. So after window shopping, we all chose food we liked to take home for dinner. There are also grocery stores in the basement, and here we found the most expensive fruit I have seen yet - $110 cantaloupe and $50 grapes.
On Tuesday, we decided to visit one of my schools. I chose to show them Kada because it is my favorite, and I think rather unique because it is so small. After we, stopped by to say hello, we intended to visit a shrine dedicated to dolls, and take a ferry to an island off the coast of Kada which the students told me has monkeys. So late morning, we took the train to Kada. The day was extremely windy, and none of us were really dressed for it. We visited my Jr. High right before lunch. Dad and Georgie spent some time in the Principals office having tea, while I helped one of the teachers prepare a couple of kids for an English proficiency exam. When we told them we wanted to head out to Awashima Island, they called to see if the ferry was running, which it wasn’t due to the high wind. So instead, the Principal sent us to class. We went to a 7th grade fine arts class. We made ancient Heina dolls out of clay. We modeled ours (except me) after some dolls found hundreds of years ago in Kada.
After class, we went to, what I can only describe as the scariest place in Japan. It is a shrine called Awashima Jinja. Each year on Girl’s Day in March, there is a large festival where they send out hundreds of dolls on boats into the sea. Throughout the year, people send unwanted dolls to the shrine, so there are more dolls there than I have ever seen. We got out of there before it turned dark.
On our way home on the train, we had a surprise encounter. At one of the train stops, a young boy boarded, and immediately turned to me and said, “Leilani sensei?” I said yes, and he smiled and sat down. Obviously he was one of my students from a Jr. High, but I did not recognize him. I asked if he knew which stop to get off for Palm City, a popular mall in the area. He didn’t seem too sure of what I was saying, so I asked him where he was going. He didn’t quite understand that either, so I told him that we were going to Palm City. Now somewhere in that exchange, I think he thought I asked him to take us to Palm City, which was a freezing 20 min walk away from the train station. I realized this when he walked us all the way there, waited for us while we shopped, told dad he had to be home by 7, and walked us back to the train station. I felt so bad! But he is such a sweet boy. His name is Yusuke. I talked with him during the walks back and forth, and dad sat with him at a Starbucks and quizzed him on what leather comes from. Keep in mind, he didn’t understand when I asked him where he was going.
But I think this story really illustrates a beautiful aspect of Japan, it’s people. There have been many times that complete strangers were so helpful and kind. They make sure that you will be ok and safe. That makes me feel really good about being here. Now don’t worry, I still want to kick a few every so often that are annoying, but overall, the people are great.
Oh, and we also had a great dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, called Kaya. They have the best okonomiyaki ever! It is called a Japanese pizza, but it is more like an omelet mixed with lots of meat, veggies, and cheese. It is really tasty!