Back Home?

My maternal grandparents came to meet us at Yokohama harbour. My mother hadn't seen them in ten years -- she has the biggest smile in this picture! Ojii-san (Grandfather, second from left) gave me the Yomiuri Giants baseball cap I'm wearing. It was the first time he had seen me since I was an infant, and his first time ever to meet my sister. It was also the last time -- he passed away a few years later.

In that one visit, I learned a lot about Japanese culture: ofuro, yukata, futon, sumo, yakyu, sushi, pachinko, mugi-cha, hanabi, ka-tori senko, Muhi, Calpis, Yakult, Tokyo Tower, Ginza (Sunday pedestrian mall and neon show at night), Doraemon, Sazae-san, Mazinga Z, Kamen Rider V3, Kikaida Zero One, Kaetekita Ultraman and Pink Lady. All of it was new to me (but frankly a bit silly and of little use once I got back to Canada). What did my mother think, after ten years?

There is a Japanese folktale, Urashima Taro, in which a fisherman gets carried off to sea on the back of a turtle. When he eventually returns to his village, time has magically passed by: all of the people he knew are long since dead, and everything has changed. We were living a folktale! With a country that changes as fast as Japan, anyone who leaves, even for a short time, risks being an Urashima Taro.