August 28, 2000
Dear all-Hello from Japan.
I got to work this morning and my email was down here?don�ft know if they are fixing stuff or just what is going on. I have tried to get into the system about a dozen different ways, to no avail. I have spoken with another of �gthe guys�h here who know what to do for computers, and they insist that I really need for the main �gthe guy�h to get back from vacation, so it will still be more time before I can get my modem fixed at home. What a mess. My luck?? I will get it fixed just in time for monsoon season to knock it out again. Sigh�c.
Last weekend was a good one. We had a couple of friends call and ask if it was okay for them to come and visit our area, and we were thrilled to have a fairly slow weekend going on, so we said �gof course, please come visit and we will show you around Hyogo.�h And they did. Travis and Meche (pronounced MAY-chay) are both Americans, from Washington state, college sweethearts who are now English teachers here. They are athletic and like hiking, and we like them immensely. Travis was a born teacher? WANTS to teach when he returns to America, which as we all know is a real calling as much as any ministry, and Meche is going to make a great counselor (probably marriage and family or school counseling) when she finished all her graduate work. They came on Saturday and we went up to the castle ruins at Takeda. It was really really hot, and since I am still getting my strength together, we drove to the parking level and just took a ten minute walk up the stairs to the ruins. It was great. Yes, I was tired, but it was a really short hike so it wasn�ft bad at all. Certainly it was worth it to get to the top?we just love this place. The weather was good and it wasn�ft crowded at all, so we were able to just park ourselves under the shade tree with our water bottles and chat for a couple hours after exploring the various scenes from the top of the mountain. What a day! Afterward, we went home and made taco salad. Meche brought some taco seasoning and salsa from Kobe, and I stir-fried some tofu and onions and seasoned it separately (she is mostly vegetarian, as you have heard that we try to be�c) and I also made some taco MEAT for the red-blooded males and for Jessica, who is as much a carnivore as anybody?ha ha ha! The tofu turned out beautifully?I will definitely be repeating the recipe! After stuffing ourselves with makeshift Mexican food, we talked and laughed and the five of us played some games together before Jessica had to go to bed. Then the taller people (I daresay it`s hard to call us adults) played UNO for a couple of hours and chatted. It was a lot of fun and we like being with them.
The next morning, we got up pretty early (to try to outsmart the heat of the day?didn�ft really work�c) and I made omelets for everyone. (Yes, I realize that an egg is technically out-of-bounds for vegetarians, but she okayed it.) They turned out pretty well. I like making omelets. I always liked them, but was skittish about learning how to make them right, since I heard lots of people complain that making them look right is really hard. I pretty much have it down to a fine science now, and have even taught Jessica how to make them, with good results! Jessica CAN be patient, and under direction, she blossoms. These particular omelets were MY thing, though?you know, I am the hostess, you know. Hee hee!
After breakfast, we cleaned up and headed for Tendaki waterfall in Oya. There were lots of cars in the parking lot, and it was still pretty early, but that`s not unusual for the falls. We set out along the trail, already having decided that when we got to the spot where our fave pools are, I would stop and wait for them to summit and return again. It was such a good time. About twenty minutes up the trail, I stopped and they left all the poles and spare water bottles and towels with me and went on to the top. I pulled out my book (currently it is Clavell`s KING RAT) and wandered out onto some rocks in the stream to read. I found a great spot. There is a large flat rock with a good �gsit-space�h on it, dead in the middle of the stream, just below where the waters come splashing around from above. The little mini-fall about my head sent the water singing around me, and two shallow places on either side gave a great accompaniment of rushing water. The trail and its occasional noises were drowned out and out of sight, so it was a little hidden paradise, perfect for reading and stuff. I caught sight of some skinks and dragonflies from time to time, but I was otherwise alone with the stream and my book, and so I reveled in the hour or more that I had for them to summit, to enjoy the upper falls, to visit the shrine and to descend. I sat on the rock and put my feet into the clear pool of water there, crisp and cool and wonderful, and read two chapter. Into the third chapter, I heard some voices behind me and turned around to find several Japanese photographers happily snapping my picture. Immediately I jumped up and began gathering my things, but two of them pleaded with me to just sit down again. Maybe I will be in a brochure or something. Ugh. Nothing like being on the tour?sometimes it is just plain DIFFICULT escaping the paparazzi!
Soon, the others were down again, and we all slithered into our favorite pool along the trail. Trav and Meche just soaked their legs from some good sitting rocks, and Ken and I waded in up to our knees. Jessica stripped out of her jean shorts and t-shirt and went for a swim (yes-the suit was underneath) and had a heckuva time splashing around. This particular pool is just below another mini-fall, and the water there is about six feet deep in places. The pool itself is almost round, and about nine feet across or so. Just small enough to keep it private and just big enough to splash around in. We all had a good time. The water is really cold, so swimming is always kept at a minimum, not to mention that the trail is within sight, so the nationals who were enjoying the day got an extra treat at the sight of the huge white water buffalo who were gallavanting around in the stream. Most of them just smiled and laughed and chatted to their companions, but many of them spoke to us and called out their �ggood mornings.�h We made our way back down and drove into Yoka, where we feasted at a nearby Chinese restaurant before heading back to Wadayama. We spent the afternoon just talking together and watching a movie, and too soon it was time for Travis and Meche to head home again?we must all work tomorrow---sigh.
Ken and I watched �gStand By Me�h with Jessica and had a long discussion about it, and she really enjoyed the movie. It has always been on my list of favorites. Then, after showers and dinner (leftovers) we watched part of a documentary in Japanese on Ancient Mesopotamia. So we took the moment to have a history/anthropology/geography lesson with her before she went on to bed. Once she was settled, Ken and I popped in a movie called �gHeaven and Earth�h which is based on a true story of a girl who survived the war in VietNam. It was made by Oliver Stone and it had Tommy Lee Jones in it and it was three of the more depressing hours of my life. You gotta hand it to Oliver Stone?he is all about symbolism and imagery, and there were moments that were only short of brilliant, but there is only so much depression and conflict that you can stomach at one sitting, even for me. My advice is that if you really need to see this film, do so in short bursts. I didn�ft like it. I gave it a thumbs down. (If any of you have seen this?yes, I understand the reality reflection, the lessons taught about pain bringing us closer to God, about the fact that portraying any of it artistically means graphic violence, etc., and even about the morality lessons of family loyalty, patriotism, and whatnot.) I got it. (the movie, that is.) I really got it. What I didn�ft get was why they made it at all. It was a terrible time, yes. She had a terrible life, yes. Her family was destroyed, yes. She is a strong person, yes. It was a heckuva story of courage and tragedy, yes. It was portrayed to us in such a way that we were supposed to feel little besides pity for her. Of course, she was and is deserving of pity and compassion. However, pity is only one emotion. It wasn�ft balanced. You should feel anger towards the system, understanding of the situation, relief for her deliverance, even joy for what she achieved, a gratitude perhaps. But ultimately, you tell stories like this so that others will see the lesson there and apply it to their own tragedies and gain courage from it. Otherwise, in my opinion, you should just shut up. So now, given that, I will shut up about this movie.
Okay?I have to go for now, but I will write more later, and promise to try not to get fired up about bad movies. Ha ha ha! Love to all from all?Lynley