Saturday, August 19, 1989
Last week, Amy in Hita-machi called and we decided to go visit her this weekend. Yesterday, at school, I mentioned my weekend plans to Murakami-sensei and she got all in a fluster about our taking a trip on our own. We will have to change trains in Oita City, she warns. We will have to go to a different platform. She draws me a little map.
I must admit I'm feeling smug to have escaped the watchful eyes of our sponsors. Here I am, a 33-year-old woman with a 10-year-old child, and they treat me like a 6-year-old. I appreciate the guidance; I do. Being illiterate in Japanese, it would have been extremely difficult to get an apartment, learn my way around Kamegawa and Beppu, enroll JQS in school, register with the city offices...yes, to do the simplest thing. But I need some time alone, to think and to explore. Yes, escaping from Kamegawa, I feel like a kid running away from boarding school.
As the train pulls in to Oita station, I double-check Murakami-sensei's map and feel confident. Even if I am from the American southwest and have no experience on trains or subways, I'm quite comfortable on trains because they have a set path and a set price. If you go to far, you just get off and wait for a train going the other way. (Unlike buses...here the fare on buses increases with the distance...so you can get lost and run up a bill quickly.)
As we hurry from one platform to another, we run into Murakami-sensei. "Well, hello. What a coincidence. Where are you off to?" No where, it turns out. She has come to meet us. She has come to ensure that we catch the right train for Hita-machi. On her half-day off, she has come down to Oita station, bought a ticket to get on the platform, so that she could walk us from platform 4 to 6. We board the train and wave bye-bye. She stands watching over us until the train pulls out of the station.
My first reaction is irritation. What kind of idiots does she think we are? On reflection I realize that she doesn't want to waste her afternoon off taking care of us, but we are her responsibility. I vow that in the future, for both our sakes, I will never, never reveal my weekend plans to any of my colleagues.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
August 19, 1989
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Escaping the watchful eyes of our keepers. Impossible.