Monday March 12, 1990
We arrive at Tokyo station at 10:44. In Tokyo, we board tour buses to Nikko National Park, which has been described as the Yellowstone of Japan. It is the home of an elaborate, Chinese-style shrine, a mausoleum for Tokugawa Ieyasu. Completed in 1636, the Toshogu Shrine is one of the most famous sights in Japan. But we rushed through it, Japanese tour style, and then each class sat for their official tourist photo. (In 24 hours of travelling, we've spent only an hour and a half actually sightseeing!)
After visiting the shrine, our tour buses headed westward through the national park, climbing snow-dusted mountains. The hairpin curves became more and more treacherous and the view over each precipice was enough to make our stomachs queazy. As we reached the top of one mountain, snow flurries started blowing.
We stopped and got out of the buses to see the famous Kegon falls, a thin, powerful cascade of water pounding the ice below. We stayed long enough to allow students and teachers alike to take their requisite snapshot. The wind was whipping the snow around us and our girls were typically without coats, hats, and gloves, their teeth chattering and their bare legs turning blue.
The buses climbed higher and higher into the mountains, past a lake that looked like a choppy sea with mountains falling right into the edge of it. Then, higher still to another lake, rimmed with ice. Finally, our hotel! (The Okuniko Kogen Hotel--which I infer from the brochure is a famous ski resort.)
The ground is thick with snow and it is snowing still. JQS and some of Akamine-sensei's students play in the snow while the rest of us are settling in. Although it is snowing, he is the only one wearing a coat.
The rooms that JQS and I shared were larger than our apartment: two tatami rooms and a carpeted anteroom. One tatami room is 4 1/2 mats, the other, 10 mats. Although traditional in design, the rooms are modern in execution--new and luxurious, the most luxurious we've yet seen. The private bathroom alone was a marvel of porcelain and hot water. It includes a shower, a bathtub and a heated, western-style toilet. When we arrived, the low table was set out for tea (hot water in the thermos, and little tea cookies).
All the teacher have a fondue meal. Away from the students for awhile, everyone is in pretty good spirits and having fun. I feel a certain satisfaction in that I can now pick tofu out of broth with chopsticks.
When we return to our rooms, the futons have been laid out for us on a thick foam rubber base which makes them much more comfortable than ours at home--especially since the hotel rooms have central heating. After JQS is settled in, I go to the hotel onsen for a long, hot soak. Until now, living in Japan has been interesting, but we've never had fun. But this is fun!
Tuesday March 12, 2002
This day is a perfect example of a "Memento" moment...one that if not written down is completely forgetten. How could we visit Nikko, one of the most written about sights in Japan and have absolutely no memory of it? It is also one of the best illustrations of how totally in the dark we felt most of the time. At this point in our stay, I didn't have a tourist guide book of Japan. There were no English language bookstores anywhere near us to purchase one before the trip. During the trip, all the teachers were too busy doing their jobs to pay much attention to us, and even if they wanted to explain things, the language barrier always kept us from understanding the significance of anything we saw or did.
I screwed up my first roll of film by not loading it properly so that it would advance. So I don't have any photographs of the ferry, the shinkansen, or Nikko. However, I found some remarkable photos taken in 1953-1954 by members of a B-29 crew, stationed at Yokota Air Base. .
The first lake was probably Lake Chuzenji. But it was already dark as we passed it. The iced-rimmed lake was probably Lake Yunoko. For more information, see Sights of Tochigi Prefecture.
Other People's Memories
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
March 12, 2002
Comments
This stuff about girls having bare legs is a genocidal social injustice - not to them, but to boys. Britain is not as bad as Japan, there is a certain level of unnecessary superstition against cold and girls here are not like yours, but here too there most schools allow some leg freedom to girls and none to boys, and every sight of it tears my heart out. I've managed to get 2 letters against it printed in papers. I'm a shortist. I've got attention deficit hyperactive disorder, it includes issues of skin sensitivity, and with a cold resistant metabolism I wear shorts all year round and adore it until it's my whole soul. But when school age, seventiers-eighties, I was always a victim of long trousers uniforms. This was a horrible abuse of my body, and as scientific knowledge of ADHD crystallises I want to make a legal case that my uniforms were child abuse. Girls in Japan are fair game to cite as evidence in making this case. I'm not transsexual or anything, but would far rather have gone to school as a girl in Japan than a boy in Wales. And it appears to me that older boys in Japan msut be mentally tortured by going to school alongside these girls, and you want to make the same case as me, especially the ADHD among you. See Ray Reinbolt's ADHD website "life concept", he has acknowledged shorts wearing as a scientifically serious ADHD issue. On 23 June 2001 I made an invited submission to the Scottish parliament's Equal Opportunities enquiry, and placed on parliamentary record that all uniforms or dress codes are internationally illegal as a human rights violation of scientifically serious minorities, such as shortism. This is for people in all countries to refer to and cite in your own struggles, including any boys in your school who would have enjoyed cold legs.
Comment by: maurice frank. Posted February 22, 2003 10:03 AM.
I think Maurice is mad. Guys in shorts in winter is just gay!
I'm Irish and I have to wear a fairly short pleated kilt and ankle socks to school and in winter it *does* get cold. Why would a guy want that -- it's bad enough for us girls!!!
Comment by: Emma. Posted March 17, 2004 08:45 AM.
I somewhat agree with Emma, short skirts look better in winter than short shorts, even on boys *S*
Comment by: Markus. Posted November 10, 2004 08:46 AM.
Hello Maurice, yes I agree it is not fair that us man have go to long to be "socially acceptable" .. actually with the right style i have been doing the mini skirt thing, too, but in winter one needs to be BRAVE, not because of the cold but because you`d be the only one with bare legs here in this area! Nice move this submission you did!
Comment by: Markus P. Posted February 20, 2006 12:50 PM.
To have school uniforms with short shorts and kneesocks for boys and skirts with kneesocks for girls the year round is a very important educationmeasure and should never be changed. To stand the concomitant discomfort of cold winter weather with bare legs, is very useful to built up the character of a child- to stand things and not to surch for the first best solution. It is also healthy, good for toughening, looks energetic and shows the school kids their standing in society. At december I am at a boarding school at the north of France which is lead by scouting guidelines. All the boys from 6 to 16 years have to wear very short leather shorts with white kneesocks the year round, despite freezing temperatures with ice and snow. They also have to do a lot of work outside on the ground. I noticed that the boys are more obedient and helpful when their thighs and knes are bluish by cold.
Comment by: Christoph. Posted October 22, 2006 02:36 PM.
Share Your Thoughts
We visit Nikko and Kegon Falls
JQS in the snow outside our hotel in Nikko. Why is he the only one wearing a coat? They call him "Eskimo-kun".