Beppu First Impression

Saturday, August 5, 1989

Before leaving Tokyo, we go shopping in Shinjuku with Murakami-sensei. We have lunch at a restaurant in Isetan department store, then head over to Kinokuniya bookstore, where I buy two dictionaries and a pack of karuta cards so that JQS can practice his hiragana.

On the plane flight from Haneda to Oita, I hope that I will see Fuji-san, but it is obscured by clouds. We arrive at Oita airport I can hardly wait to see our new home, but first we stop at a restaurant for dinner. I thought we'd finally see our apartment and have a chance to get settled. I've been very anxious to see where we're to spend the next two years, what our "2 rooms, a kitchen, and a bath" is like. But Murakami-sensei hands us over to the charge of another English teacher, Tonai-sensei and we are to spend the night at his house, only a maddeningly few blocks from our school and our apartment.

We drive into Beppu at twilight. A mist hangs on the mountains. The rice fields and gardens seem like a scene from a picture book. We meet Mrs. Tonai, who speaks no English, and runs in and out of the kitchen offering us Japanese pears (which are round and not pear-shaped) and other treats. We all make a feeble attempt at polite conversation before getting ready for bed.

Before going to bed, Tonai-sensei encourages me to use his bath, which is a hot springs bath. I'm too tired for the pride in his voice to register on my consciousness. Taking a hot springs bath (I learn over the next few months) is indeed one of the wonders of living in Beppu and having a spring-fed ofuro in one's house is special indeed. Instead, to his obvious disappointment, I opt for a quick shower. We climb the steep Japanese stairs (more like a step-ladder than a staircase) to our room on the second floor. It has been laid out beautifully by Mrs. Tonai, a scroll and a vase of Chinese lanterns in the tokonoma.

A wind is blowing from the south. I am glad that I'm used to a futon and sleeping with my window open. (Tonai-sensei reassured me that it was safe to leave the windows open at night.) The noise of the cicadas awakens me.

Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
August 05, 1989

Comments

Evocative passage. Memories spring up. Driving in the back of a pristine doilied taxi through a late spring snow storm in Tokyo. The obscured grid of streets and concrete buildings passing by the window. Occassional persimmons glowing through the feathery white like orange lanterns on bare branches. Then feeling excited and adventurous, deliciously independent on the flight from Haneda to Oita and being treated to a sight of Fuji-san. A short itme later, the contrast - brilliant sunshine glinting off the bay in Oita , the irrepressible green flowing like a river just beyond the windows of the cab, the delight of stepping into my own two rooms-a kitchen-and a bath and knowing it would be my own private place, the relief at being thousands of miles from the chaos of L. A. and in such a place at that! Knowing that if I stepped outside and walked to the front of the building, I would be able to glimpse Beppu Bay and the sweet curve of the coast leading to Oita, while rising behind the apartments was the gentle Mt. Tsurumi and the myriad spouts of steam from hundreds of hot springs. I couldn't wait to explore this fairyland. I was not to be disappointed - ever.

Comment by: jbl. Posted September 8, 2003 11:44 AM.

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