Midnight Mutterings | Thinking about Japan

||| MIDNIGHT MUTTERINGS by JACKIE BATES |||

Almost a half century ago, when I was living in Seattle with my family, the house next door was bought by a Japanese couple who were working at the University of Washington. I never actually met them as they never lived in that house. Instead, they rented it to a series of Japanese families who also were visiting scholars at the UW, at an exorbitant rate. Each family lived there for months or years until they realized the situation, then moved out to more reasonably priced housing. This unfortunate extortion meant that my little family had front row seats for an opportunity to learn about another interesting culture in an easy, geographically convenient manner. All of the families were friendly and we shared many interesting, times. I think the families considered us a typical American family to learn from as well, though we didn’t necessarily see ourselves as such.

Over the decade we definitely had some interesting learning experiences, such as the time we invited one family to join us for Thanksgiving dinner along with my nephew and his wife who were architecture students at UW. Long before dinner, we found the Japanese couple and two small girls standing in our small front yard, ahead of schedule, cold and wet, deprived of heat and light due to a raging storm, with a homemade pumpkin pie they understood to be traditional for Thanksgiving in America They admitted that they did not understand why such a food item was desirable, and we quietly understood their opinion as the pie was a normal pie crust filled with pumpkin pulp: no spices, sweetener or custard ingredients. Then there was the beautifully roasted turkey, with all the trimmings, prepared by my nephew, who lived nearby student housing. Lucky for us, as the storm that was depriving us and our Japanese neighbors of power, had not affected where my nephew lived.

The dinner was moved to a large upstairs room in our house, which was mid-remodel, but had a woodburning stove which provided heat as well as hot water for tea and coffee, and for cooking mashed potatoes that rounded out the dinner with a salad. Our Japanese guests were mystified by the power outage, and had no idea it would likely put right soon. We set up a makeshift table with some sawhorses from the remodel work and it was quite pretty with the candles and a little ambient light from the new skylight. Mid-dinner the electricity returned, but not before one of the little girls’ bangs were singed by the candles and we came to understand that turkey is not a palatable food in Japan, with its unfortunate disgusting aroma, while chicken is popular. Our guests were gracious and polite about potatoes, vegetables, salad and ice cream, as well as the debris from the ongoing remodel with its tools and plaster and sawdust, all of which were evident when the power returned mid dinner.

Then there was another family years later and the Santa hat I made for their child. They mistakenly thought it was for the father who wore it seemingly 24/7. We could see him through their and our windows at the head of their table for weeks. Perpetual Santa.

There were other misunderstandings just as tragic and funny with each family in turn, but this was supposed to be about my favorite family: Susumu, Kyoko, and four year old Yuki, who was as delightful child as I’ve ever known, and whose plan was to teach me to speak Japanese. A thankless a task as any child could have chosen. (Those are their real names as I don’t imagine they will be reading this column as they returned to Japan four years after they arrived, when Susumu completed his fellowship in hematology, including bone marrow and stem cell transplantation, at U.W. School of Medicine.) I start the story here, as they came to Orcas Island with me on my second visit ever, to visit the three acres up in the woods on the way to Doe Bay. I did buy the property and built a tiny cabin above one of the few creeks (and seasonal at that) that sounded so beautiful that day. No power or water, which was easy as I moved there from Waldron Island.

I still treasure my lovely Japanese friends who taught me so much about life in Japan as well as here in these United States, during these complicated politically and culturally times.

The rest of that story will have to wait two weeks, and will of course, include a cat. Meanwhile, I am enjoying Thanksgiving in Bellingham and Victoria with my son Jay and Rose and Molly, our cats, who are planning Christmas on Orcas by the sea. Hoping your Thanksgiving (or Friendsgiving, about which I am only learning) or whatever you celebrate now and/or later, is warm and the power stays on. One last remark: When my son was young, he referred to the current holiday as ‘Thanksgetting’ as it set the stage for Christmas dreams to come in a few weeks. (I realize that might be amusing only to his parents.) Meanwhile I am making Miso (soup) and remembering my dear Japanese friends whom I haven’t seen in so very long.