Kirsten Meets the Family (february 2000 trip to Japan)

[Naoto's Mother's family ]>[Back in Tokyo ]

Well, as you all know, I finally decided I couldn't escape my duty forever and traveled to Japan with Naoto with the purpose of meeting his many aunts and uncles. Naoto's mother has eight sisters and his father has five brothers and sisters. He also has a billion cousins. I have designed this website to show the pictures and chronicle the many gatherings that occurred.

We arrived on Sunday morning and stayed over night at Naoto's mother and father's house in Tokyo. The very first day my nose started running and sneezing became an every-ten-minute occurence. Why? Well, first of all they have a cat, and second of all I have discovered that in my three year absence from Japan that I have become allergic to the dust and mites that live in tatami. .

As you can see in the first picture that isn't very helpful when you are sleeping right on the tatami in a futon, as I did for all the trip

The next morning Naoto, his mother, and I hopped on a Shinkansen (bullet train) for Miyagi prefecture a couple hours north of Tokyo. There we met up at an onsen (hot springs resort) with four of his aunts and various cousins. His aunts (all old enough to be grandmothers as Naoto's father is youngest of his tribe) were SOOOOOOOOOOO cute. They were all about four feet tall and talked with the local Japanese dialect and were all very very polite to me.

It turns out that one of Naoto's cousins is like the figure skating champion of the prefecture. Pretty cool, eh? Also, one of the weird by products of being a daughter-in-law in Japan is that you get to be naked with your mother and aunts-in-laws. Onsens in Japan are skin-only. I felt slightly surreal sitting around in the giant pool buck-naked and tattoo showing and all with sixty and seventy year old relatives! It got even more fun when all the little old ladies started singing karaoke

After the onsen, we went to Naoto's father's Jikka (where he grew up, the lineal home where the oldest sons always live, etc. etc.). This turned out to be a huge traditional Japanese tatami house surrrounded by fields and farms. The whole thing is upkept by the widow of Naoto's oldest uncle on that side. She is like seventy something and still does farming!!!

The next morning we got up (man I wish someone would give the Japanese central heating, I forgot how unappetizing it it to get out of bed and wash your face when the room temperature is below zero) and went to Ohaka maeri.

This means we walked over to the graveyard (actually monument yard as most Japanese are cremated now) and put sake and cakes on the main Suzuki monument.

It was a beautiful place, new shining monuments interspersed with weather worn stones with fading kanji. All in the middle of an apple orchard owned by the Suzuki main branch.

I clapped and prayed at the monument along with Naoto and his mother. I felt a little like an intruder at that time, and I wondered how all his long dead ancestors whose names were written on the monument felt about a Christian asking for their blessing?

Naoto told me that as he isn't part of the main branch family (eldest son's family) his name won't go on the list of ancestors remembered there. When we left, a cat and a crow descended on the monument to eat the cakes we left there. It was a little spooky.

Next: Naoto's mother's family....