August 29-31, 2009: Hello Long-Distance Japanese Relatives that I Have Never Met Before!

Today I left Hiroshima early to take 3 trains (including a few bullet trains) to Takasaki to see my grandmother’s relatives. I felt a little lost at the station but they found me and Masako (grandmother’s sister’s daughter) and Risa (Masako-san’s daughter) came to pick me up (because the name’s might be overwhelming, I will leave out the “san,” and “obasan”/”ojisan”/”obaasan” usually written after). They were amazed that we could carry on a conversation and said my Japanese accent sounded very natural. I have other long-distance relatives (half Japanese, half Italian) in America that have went to Japan before me to visit and they told me they can’t speak or understand Japanese at all, so they were worried it would be the same with me. They brought me to my grandmother’s sister’s house, Mitsuko. I wrote her a few letters the year before and sent them to her the month before I left NY for Japan. Then Akira and Mari came. It was like a family reunion. Mari was an interesting character. She wore the shortest dresses (she is known for the way she dresses by the family and they warned me before I met her). Her makeup (blush, fake eye lashes: which are commonly used every day by Japanese women) and colored contact lenses were so excessive, I felt like I was looking at a doll. She spent most of her time fluffing her hair and looking at herself delicately in the mirror.

Immediately when I got there, I was fed some noodles in a nice veggie broth for lunch (which I was ecstatic about because I didn’t eat any breakfast). Then I showed Mitsuko pictures from my trip so far (farming and the week in Kyushu).

Akira, Mitsuko, Masako (and her husband), Mari and I all went to Kaiten sushi and I ate so much. Including some green tea mousse that was way too sweet. I had fish that I have never seen before and it was all delicious. I really like raw scallops. O! And fatty tuna and fatty salmon. Wait! Don’t forget the ikura (big fish eggs that pop and ooze in your mouth)! And, unagi and anagi are also so good (two types of eel the latter less oily). Kaiten sushi is fun because you watch the dishes circulate and pick up whichever one you want, and if you don’t see what you want you order it. It’s all color coded: the plates the sushi (usually 2 pieces) is on are different colors, which serve as a price tag. Gold is usually the most expensive, around 490 yen ($4.90) or more depending on the place. After sushi we went back to Mitsuko’s house and Yukiko and her other daughter (other than Mari), Keiko came over after work to take some pictures and talk. It was like a family reunion. I definitely look way different though. And bigger.

Then I slept a night at Masako’s house, which was the most comfortable night’s sleep I’ve had so far. After sleeping in a cold tent for a night a couple of days before, I felt like I was in heaven sleeping on big fluffy clouds.

The next day I had an awesome Japanese breakfast on behalf of Mitsuko. I showed Akira, Mistuko, and Masako some of my pictures. Then Yukiko came with some presents from her and her daughters. Keiko works as a nutritionist at the Kewpie (Japanese mayo) factory so I got an official Kewpie mug (that I was told was not even sold in stores) and cell phone strap. Then Akira drove me to Yokohama.

At Yokohama I met Akira’s wife, Hiroko, and daughter, Ayaka (10 years old). I spoke to Hiroko on the phone and then I thought she spoke really fast in Japanese, but in person her Japanese is even faster. At first Ayaka was a little shy, but she ended up opening up a little and becoming silly, which I enjoyed. That day we went to eat sushi for dinner and I was told to order as much as I wanted. With every dish I finished, they asked me what I was going to have next. I almost never had an empty dish in front of me. It was about $100 for all of us. Sushi 2 days in a row, I had no complaints, it was delicious. Sushi is so much better and fresher in Japan than NYC. I ordered some sushi (scallop, a crayfish looking thing with antennas and eyes, and tuna) that came with melted cheese on top. Raw fish with melted cheese sounds really weird, but it was pretty good. Don’t know if I would get it again, though.

Akira’s apartment was really small. I could see why they found it necessary to put me in a hotel for 2 nights. It was really nice of them to reserve the hotel and pay the fee for me. Hiroko told me that their tiny little apartment costs 130000 yen a month (about $1300). Sounds comparable to NYC, doesn’t it? She said that even though it’s small, it’s close to the major trains and convenient; that’s why it’s pricey.

The next day I met up with Hiroko and Ayaka and we went to Harajuku, a huge shopping district that is very popular amongst young people. Amakusa was where I wanted to go because I want to experience something more traditional, but it was a little farther and we figured I’ll get more than enough tradition in Kyoto. The fashion in the Harajuku district is supposed to be shocking, but aside from the hip colorful clothes and purple hair, there was not much. I wasn’t really surprised at all. Although, there were shoes everywhere, which I have come to realize is my one weakness. At first I didn’t want to walk into any stores, but then realized that’s what Hiroko brought me here for, so I stepped in a few. Hiroko told me Akira wanted to buy me a shirt as a present, but since I took more interest in a cute one piece, she offered to buy me that. And I hesitated, but she insisted. What could I do? To decline within this culture would be rude; I was forced to accept, but happily nonetheless. It was about 4000 yen ($40) for the outfit. She kept asking me if that was really what I wanted, as if it were too small/cheap. And told me I could get the purple one piece if I wanted (but it was ugly, and cost more). They spent way too much money on me already.

I wanted to give Hiroko some money to buy something for Ayaka, to show my thanks, but since we were in a bunch of stores, I told Ayaka to tell me what she wanted. Hiroko insisted I shouldn’t buy her anything, but then finally compromised on something that didn’t even cost 500 yen ($5). I felt bad, but she said she could not accept any present from me because I already gave her a Columbia University t-shirt and said that was more than enough.

Then we went to the only Forever 21 in Japan. I needed new jeans and couldn’t find the style I liked anymore in NY but found it in Japan, so I bought a pair, and then Hiroko insisted I go downstairs where everything was 50% off. Why did she bring me here?! About 3 dresses and one shirt later we were finally out of the store. I have to admit though, the style was a bit different, and the clothes fit me better. And it was damn cheap! And not as crowded as NYC.

We then went to eat dinner at a family restaurant. I had some Indian curry, which of course, is not as good as what you can get in NYC, but surprisingly spicy. Japanese people hate spicy food, so I was surprised that it was that spicy. Hiroko bought caramels from Hokkaido (that I thought you could only buy there, but now there is one store in the area) and I never had them because they were so expensive (12 small pieces for almost 900 yen, $9). After dinner she gave me a few pieces. They were so delicious and soft and just melted in your mouth. They were milky and sweet, unlike any caramel I ever had before. I have never had caramel that good before.

They also bought some gummy bears that have small circular candies that surround the outside. We have them in big candy stores in NYC, but they never saw it before. Hiroko told me she buys these types of candies occasionally because the dyes in candies (red #1, yellow #4, etc) are really bad for your health. They never said this in America! I wonder why! Probably because then no one would buy them and they would go out of business. So they fed me a few pieces and marveled at how my tongue changed color. I was a guinea pig for a while. I had every color and by the end my tongue turned black. They got so excited, laughed so hard, and took pictures of my tongue. I made sure to make a funny face for them to remember me by. Ayaka didn’t have space on her camera phone, and so she told her mother to mail her all the pictures of me later. It was good times.