Lift Up Your Hearts!

I was the only one up for a long time this morning, and was rewarded by a fabulous view of Mt. Fuji as I drank my tea in the warm room. The weather has turned colder, thus clearer. There is just something awesome about seeing that magnificent mountain towering about all the other mountains that are so impressive when Fuji is hidden!

I don't know how long the others might have slept had not Heather and Jonathan called. The walls are sound-porous, and while one might be able to go back to sleep after being awakened by a ringing telephone, it's not so easy to pass up the chance to speak with loved ones! Jonathan was under the weather, but very articulate in his conversation. When he announced that he wanted to "go visit Aunt Janet tonight," Heather explained that he couldn't because Aunt Janet is still in Japan, and besides, he was sick. Immediately he proclaimed, "I'm feeling better!" Only much later did it occur to me why he thought he might be able to visit. After all, Aunt Janet has been in Japan for months. Even when Jonathan and Heather visited us in September, he made a point of telling us, on the way from the airport, that he was visiting Grandma and Dad-o but couldn’t see Aunt Janet because she was in "'Pan." But this time he spoke with all of us on the phone and knew we were together; perhaps he assumed that Aunt Janet had returned home. Not that he could have come to Florida for the evening, anyway….

Around 10 o'clock this morning, Janet's friend Niko picked us up and drove us to Fujiyoshida and the Kawaguchiko Music Forest. She had taken Janet there in August and though it isn't "Japanese," it was charming and delightful. The collection of music boxes and mechanical instruments and toys made me think of our friend Richard, especially when I saw the labels "Wurlitzer" and "Welte." As Janet had, I put a nickel in the Wurlitzer harp. What amazed me most was the excellent condition of all the instruments, despite the fact that they are operated frequently. In addition to the demonstrations, there was a concert that featured a human string quartet in addition to the mechanical music. As fascinating as the mechanisms are, nothing beats live music.

For lunch Niko took us to a restaurant that is famous for its dolls, as part of the Doll Festival. When I heard about it, I immediately thought of the Margaret Woodbury Strong doll collection in Rochester's Strong Museum, but this is something quite different. The Doll Festival dolls are specifically Emperor, Empress, and various attendants, though they come in as many varieties as Christmas Nativity scenes. The Doll Festival, held on March 3, is also called Hinamatsuri or Girls' Day.

Next we visited Niko's new house. She and Janet hadn't seen much of each other recently because Niko had to move. It seems the land under her old home was needed for a supermarket. And we think "eminent doman" has gotten out of control in the United States—just look where we are headed. This brings up an oddity in Japanese life: houses are not an investment. Unlike homes in the U.S., and more like cars, they actually depreciate! A thirty year old house is basically considered worthless. When you buy a house, you're actually buying the land, and the first thing you do is demolish the old house and build a new one. At least that's the story as we were able to apprehend it. No wonder the Japanese don't put much money into the structure of their homes, such as insulation, thicker walls, and central heating! It's not clear to me why a house has lost all value after 30 years, especially since the otherwise hefty taxes have thus been reduced to almost nothing. Just another reminder that things we take for granted are not necessarily universal.

Anyway, Niko's house certainly belied the fact that she had just moved in. It was beautiful! We still have boxes sitting around from our move in 2003. Not that boxes aren't the best place for some of the items, but…. Niko fed us tea and sweets, including a very interesting sugared sweet potato. She also arranged for us to return to her house later tomorrow for dinner, since we had another commitment for tonight.

After Niko returned us to Janet's place, Atley and Bonnie took us to their favorite Thai restaurant. If we can enjoy Thai food in the U.S., why not in Japan? The very best part of the good meal, however, was the conversation. Atley and Bonnie are very interesting people; Atley and Porter especially hit it off well, despite some significant political differences. That's why we had arranged this dinner in the first place: we had started some good conversations in the car on the way back from Bible study, and hadn't wanted to stop.

Back at home, we had a chance to meet Janet's neighbor, Mark, and some of his friends. The community of English teachers is small, and though Janet met Mark as a neighbor and fellow-JET, and she met Atley and Bonnie through church, it should not have surprised me as much as it did that Mark and Atley and Bonnie are also know each other well. I'm learning more about community on this trip than I had expected.