There was a time in 1989 when I considered moving from the teacher's housing on Daigaku Dori to a little shack of a place in East Beppu (Higashi Beppu). As its name suggests, this part of town was on the eastern edge of our modest city and boasted the last small train station before one hit the provincial capital of Oita 15 minutes further on. It rested in the shadow of Mount Takiyama where wild monkeys roamed begging for segments of oranges and insulting visitors from the trees. In fact, aside from residents of Higashi Beppu, the only reason to get off there was to visit the mountain park.
I called it a shack but it was really a small detached apartment of sorts rented out by a wizened but cheery couple. It had no bath but was right by a small public bath and at any rate there were the hot springs all around. Part of its appeal lay in the fact that it was right on some sort of canal leading, presumably, to the bay. The Anglo/American contingent called it the "Klong" after the canals of Bangkok. The sound of rushing water was ever present and the whole neighborhood had the feel of something prewar, or at least 1960's. It had been vacated by a young couple moving back to the states to get married and had all the required appliances and dishes, minimal but sufficient. It had the added attraction of having tatami mats in the two roooms, something our westernized teachers' apartments did not have. They were faded and yellowed, but still retained the springy comfort inherent in tatami.
I took the place for a short time and used it when my L.A. boyfriend came out on an ill-fated and unsuccessful attempt to seduce me back into a relationship. His first words when he saw it were, "This is a shithole." Though he returned to California after a mere nine days, I found that my past had stained it somehow and I let it go. But it remains a sweet image in my mind of the simple and uncluttered existence I just might have been able to achieve, naieve as it probably is to believe so.
Posted by Jeanne Belisle Lombardo
June 20, 2002
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There was a time in 1989 when I considered moving from the teacher's housing on Daigaku Dori to a little shack of a place in East Beppu (Higashi Beppu).