Sayônara

6 Days…

NOTE: THIS WILL BE MY LAST POST IN JAPAN.

I HOPE TO BE WRITING AGAIN IN FLORIDA IN ABOUT A WEEK.

Not long back from Yamanashi, from a very good visit with my old friends there. It turned out to be a little more emotional than I had expected, but in hindsight that shouldn’t have come as a surprise, because I was saying goodbye to my oldest friends in Japan. Today was the time alloted for visiting Mama-san, who is 86 years old and living in a nearby nursing home. I was concerned that she might not recognize or remember me, as she is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

In the early afternoon we drove to the home where she is living and spent almost forty-five minutes with her. It appears to be a very good nursing home, extremely clean and not at all crowded, with staff enough to care for each person in the best way possible. As visitors, the four of us had to wear masks to assure that the elderly would not be exposed to any infection. I have to admit it was my first time in all my years here to put on one of those ‘surgeon’s masks,’ which are as common here as blue sky. But we had a good visit and little by little Mama-san remembered a little more. Seeing her one last time before my departure was very special.

After the five centimeters of snow that fell in the area on Saturday, Sunday turned out to be a complete reversal and the weather was spectacular. I enjoyed walking through the fields (all the snow had melted in the bright sun) and around the neighborhood of farmhouses, everywhere an explosion of flowering color. Our meals on both days were especially fresh and delicious, and each time Mieko-san cooked, half of the ingredients came from her garden in the back yard. Yamanashi has always been rather special in my opinion. Everything about it gives a feeling of joy and satisfaction.

Tomorrow morning I lose telephone, Internet and cable, and in the afternoon this iMac will take wing for Florida, packed securely in the original Apple box. On Tuesday morning all the boxes and the old Yamanashi kitchen table will be picked up for shipping. On Friday I board a plane for Florida, saying goodbye to the place I have happily lived for twenty-eight years.

Sayônara my longtime home, my good friends.

Photos: Two pictures taken within a hundred feet of the Yamanashi house.

Spring in the Countryside...Sayonara

7 Days...

We had reservations on a 1:00 train from Tokyo to Hinoharu in Yamanashi Prefecture, but for the first time in memory, I arrived at Shinjuku Station to find the train had been cancelled because of heavy snow along the line. However, we were lucky in catching another train shortly after 1:00 that was not influenced by the snow, so got to Yamanashi with little delay. Such heavy snowfall this late in April is not common in Tokyo, or other parts of the Kanto area, so waking to find snow on rooftops and ground was a surprise, and not a happy one.

For the full hour and a half of the train ride sun blazed down on the passing scenery, and anyone would have mistaken it for a summer afternoon. As the train moved beyond Tokyo, the flowering trees -- cherry, plum and peach began to color the mountain slopes and the orchards spaced here and there along the track. Of course, following the treasured custom of long distance train travel in Japan, we enjoyed eating and drinking tea as we gazed upon the splendor of those blossoming trees sliding past outside our window.

Arriving in Hinoharu, we found Mieko-san waiting for us at the station. Rather than driving straight back to the house we took a long roundabout way, stopping to see the cherry trees at Sane Hara, all of them at the height of bloom. The two attached photographs are views at Sane Hara.

We reached the house sometime after five o'clock to find Jiro working with his honeybees. This is his first year to keep bees, and he is expecting the bees to produce honey in the neighborhood of ten kilos. One of my hopes is that tomorrow I will be able to get a look at Jiro's bees.

I am warm here seated not far from the woodburning stove, but it's time now to see if I can post these words on the blog using Jiro's computer. More tomorrow...