Sensei and Sensibility
Sunday, May 30, 2004
The Secret Of the Universe!
Well, lately I`ve been hearing a lot about this at school. It is "Moral Education", if you will.
Today, there was a student assembly and a speech about this. Apparently, if the students did this one thing, and only this one thing, they would be instantly transformed into good students and good people! One student was called up on stage to demonstrate this.
This one thing is the glue of all society!!
Last week, I helped to interview students for our upcoming exchange trip. They were asked to name one thing that they wished to improve about themselves. All of the students said that they wished that they could do this better.
What is this mysterious solution to all of society`s problems?
...
...
Loud Greetings!!!!
So, the next time you see someone on the street, shout "GOOD MORNING" to them at the top of your voice!
When your colleagues leave the office, scream "GOOD BYE!" at them, as loudly as you can.
Together, through greeting each other loudly and energetically, we can all achieve world peace....
...or so my students were told.
:)
 Sabine . 7:56 PM . Comments
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Monday, May 24, 2004
Yoshi and I woke up this morning, and like any day, we made coffee and relaxed. Staring out of our window, we could see the sun shining down upon the river, its reflection dancing on the ripples.
"Today is a good day," we said as we hugged each other.
Yoshi had to leave - he had a long drive to his hometown to pick up his family register. I called my mom and my sister, and talked leisurely with them. As I stood on the balcony once more, I thought about my father and wondered what he would think. about today. I noticed movement in the river. I leaned over the railing to get a better look. There, swimming up stream, was a one metre long Giant Salamander. Slowly, surely, this rare creature was making his way from rock to rock, forging ahead up the river. The sun shone warmly on my face.
I showered, dressed, cleaned the house. I thought, "My mom would be proud," as I scrubbed at the floor. She believes that it is always best to make sure that the house is clean for days like Monday. Her mom always told her things like this, and now I too am hearing my mother whisper these kinds of things in my ear.
I made Yoshi`s and my favourite brunch. Days like today should call for more elevated cuisine, however Yoshi and I are simple souls: we preferred to have breakfast sausages, fried eggs, and garlic homefries.
After brunch, we just sat there, relaxing together, enjoying the sunshine, talking as if it was any other day. We looked at our watches: 1:45, time to go.
Checking to make sure that all our paperwork was in order, we leisurely drove to the town hall and walked up to the counter. The lady at the counter recognized us instantly (who couldn`t?), and smilingly helped us finish filling out the forms. We patiently waited. Ichinose san came down to see us, and softly said, "Omedetou. Honto ni omedetou." Congratulations, really, congratulations. We were called back up to the counter, and asked to sign our names. Yoshi carefully removed and cleaned his hanko (name stamp). I slowly pulled the pen out of the container. We squeezed each other`s hands and with that, signed the papers. We handed over our 1000 yen (about 12CAD). The lady told us that she would print it up in the newspaper. She handed us our papers and quietly said, "Omedetou."
And with that, Yoshi and I walked out of the town hall, hand in hand, husband and wife for the first time.
We returned home, and quickly changed out of our fancy clothes. We had been saving some Australian Pinot Noir for this occasion, a gift from a mutual friend who went to the vinyard to get it for us. We toasted, drank the wine (Yoshi kept staring at the papers and repeating astonshingly, "I am a husband, and you are my wife!"). It really was a bit surreal, but it is difficult to explain why. In Japan, every family gets a family register. Births, deaths, and marriages are recorded on this. Yoshi`s family register had a big black box beside his sister`s name: moved. His sister, married, has been essentially removed from his parents register and onto her new family`s register. It makes a census easy, I think! Yoshi, being a son, will still be noted on his parents register, however, there will be a memo attached to it: Yoshi, being married, is now the head of another family. A marriage in Japan is more than just a uniting of a couple, it is the creation of a family. Legally, now, we are a family. We have our own register, and this was so amazing to look at. At the top, Yoshi`s name, listed as husband. Under that, my name, listed as wife. Under that, three spaces, for additional members. For children. This paper would be the official record of our family. It was so powerful - it was our future all on one sheet of paper. We sipped our wine, holding hands, just taking it all in. Images of our future spilled through our minds like the wine spilled down our throats.
Jump forward a few hours to 6pm. Once again, we put on our nice clothes. I wore dress pants and Yoshi put on his good jeans :) I wore my white dress coat. We grabbed the champagne, and walked slowly, hand in hand, to our favourite park. Memories came flooding back - the barbecues, the late-night walks to go look at the stars, Andrew (the Australian) building his first snowman ever there. It seemed fitting that this little park nestled in the mountains at the junction of two little rivers, should be the setting for another memory. The last rays of the sun were warming our faces as we neared the meeting spot. Soon, it would sink down behind the mountains, casting an orange glow over the tips of the pine trees, and over the tops of our beloved mountains of Ikuno.
As we crossed the tiny bridge over the Ichikawa river, hand in hand, we heard the shouts of our waiting posse of friends: Suzette and Maeva, who had rushed there after work in Asago; Sato san, who always brings his taiko drum with him when we go hiking (or anywhere for that matter!); Jo, who made the hour-long trek from Kasai after school just to take part in the proceedings; Paul, who came bearing a portable piano and hook up cables; and Andrew, the friend who has been there from the beginning, who helped us come together, and who was going to be our stand-in conductor (a job he had done on the side in Kumamoto). There were shouts and hugs and questions from our friends, but most importantly, there was love. Looking at Yoshi`s glowing face, and at the smiling faces of my friends, I realized that I had never felt so cared about in all my life. We started our voyages together recently, and it was amazing just to feel the power of love radiating from everyone. We set up quickly, and it was decided that Sato san would "give me away". Yoshi and I don`t have rings yet - in this land of forests, there`s no place to buy diamonds - so Andrew brought some hand-made necklaces for us to use. We used a rock as our altar, the sunset and rose-tipped clouds as our stained glass windows, and the mountains as our church. Maeva and Suzette came bearing a bouquet of carnations, my mom`s favourite flower, so that she too could be a part of the ceremony.
As Paul`s fingers tickled the keys of the piano, I walked across the grassy knoll to my waiting groom. Sato san released me, and made his way back to our onlookers. And Andrew began his speech. Standing there, looking back and forth between Yoshi and Andrew, I was beaming. My family wasn`t there, and yet they were. My mom was there in the carnations, my sister and her family were there in the words that Andrew was saying (the speech, "The greatest of these is Love", which I had recited at her wedding years ago), my other sister was there in the piano playing, and my brother and his family were there in the park - I could only imagine the kids running around to look at the goldfish in the river the entire time.
The words sunk in as we looked at each other. Tears welled up in our eyes. There was something so pure, so simple, and so honest about this gesture. Gone were the contrived clothes and wedding halls, gone was the stress of making sure that everyone was happy and knew what they were doing. It was just a group of close friends, gathering on a hill, and speaking from the heart with the beauty and power of nature as our witness.
Soon, we had repeated our vows (in Japanese!!! "Hai, chikaimasu!"), placed the necklaces around each others necks, and shared a kiss and a hug with our friends and our town. The ceremony was over, and we were still hugging, and when we broke apart, we ran to hug our friends.
Together, we popped the champagne cork and shared a toast. Sato san almost managed to catch the flying cork, until a lamp-post got in his way. There was laughter and cheering, and hurriedly packing up of everything - we had a party to get to at our local Izakaya, and Ichinose san and Yuko were already waiting there.
The ten of us sat down to beer and sashimi, speeches by Ichinose san (who was my witness for the marriage papers), and Andrew, and slowly, the evening turned into night. This Izakaya was the perfect place for our celebrations, as it too has been the setting for many of our memories in Ikuno. The Taisho (owner/head cook) was a bit disappointed that he didn`t know the reason for the celebrating: he would have gotten champagne in. Instead, he placed a single candle in an Onigiri (giant rice ball) for us to blow out together. Maeve had brought cake, and made an amazingly accurate drawing of Yoshi and I. Again, glowing faces everywhere. It was so nice to be surrounded by this amazing group of friends! I wished that the night would never end, but alas, the warm sake had made us sleepy, and we eventually parted our ways.
The next day, when Yoshi and I woke up, things had returned to normal, but the warm glow was still in our hearts.
Sabine . 10:47 PM . Comments
all journal entries
This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?
|
