On the train down, the girl opposite spent a good 20 minutes or more picking over her appearance in a large mirror drawn from her bag. Then she had a less image-conscious snooze, a towel draped over a broad hat presumably carried for just this occasion.
Mr Komuro met me at Ashiya station. He refers to himself as "Boss". This took me a while to realise, and for a time I thought we were going to be meeting the big chief of one of the local bee organisations. He refers to his wife as "Mama", which also took me a while to realise, and for a time I thought we'd be meeting his mum as well.
Mama was at the local hospital getting a check-up for her diabetes, which turned out to be going nicely. While we waited for her, Boss took me to a tea shop and bought me a milk tea and two cakes.
Boss is 66, though looks a heck of a lot younger. (Pictures of both in coming posts.) Although my Japanese is strong now and comfortable for conversation, Boss likes to generally try to convey his messages in loose-grammar English interspersed with grammar-free Japanese. He is a benevolent, engaging, opinion-rich alpha male, whose now-retired attention is turned to building up a bee kingdom (never mind that all the workers are female, and the show is run by a queen!)
Mama is 60, addicted to television, and a dedicated carer. She recounts with solemnity the dire goings-on of tabloid news, and sparkles as she tells a yarn. She is a retired show performer and comedian, and hasn't lost her edge.
Now that their kids are grown with families of their own, both dote on their baby Bohgi (think 'Bogey'), a sixteen year old Maltese, now living tooth-free. We drove out to their beachside apartment to collect Bohgi, who tottered out cheerfully with tongue lolling to greet us at the car.
The apartment looks out onto a wedding chapel. Boss informed me that they could watch the motor boats bringing couples out from Osaka's Universal Studios Japan theme park for their weddings.
When they have WWOOFers, the Komuros stay with the WWOOFer in another apartment in Rokkou, which doubles as their apitherapy clinic, and after collecting Bohgi, we headed out there. As we drove, they recounted their "what comes to mind" set for Australia - Sydney, Melbourne, Ayer's Rock, Aborigi, Aussie beef, kangaroos and koalas.
Rokkou is right near Ashiya Mountains, which is Japan's Beverly Hills, complete with satellite security observation and underground electricity pylons. It is the suburb of choice for Japan's famous elite.
I was offered a to sleep in a room with a floor futon, or what now seemed like such a luxury, a single bed. I chose the room with the single bed. It's their clinic room - I sleep where people get therapeutically get stung dozens of times by bees.
We drove out to one of Boss' friend's farms, Ono-san. No, no relation to Yoko Ono, I did ask.
I was introduced to Junko. She also regaled me with her "comes to mind" list about Australia. She advised me that in Japan, the most famous Australian actor is Arnold Schwarzenegger. She demonstrated what was to be my work during my stay - cleaning bee frames of wax, for reuse of the frames.
Mrs Ono was boiling bamboo shoots for eating, using bamboo as a fuel.
I was served delicious raw sliced tuna steak served in cool sake+mirin+soya sauce for dinner. It was delicious and sweet.
Mama spoke after dinner of the Kobe earthquake, which was near to their former home and devastated the area. They mentioned the experience in their WWOOF listing, and it was one of the reasons I chose them as a host. It was gripping listening.
She spoke of how the room went up and down, not side to side. A roof beam fell down where their baby grandson had been sleeping until the previous night. Each aftershock of the quake left them terrified. There was no gas, no electricity, and no water to put out the fires that roared through the devastated homes. Over the next weeks, skewed buildings would occasionally crash to the ground. Sky highways had crashed to the earth, and the train lines were snapped and twisted like candy.
None of their family was killed or injured, but they lost many friends. Their house was flattened by the earthquake, then requisitioned by the government for road use, for little compensation. The survivors were squashed into any school sports halls that were standing. They bathed in metal drums. In three days, they went from pure gratitude for their survival to bickering over the awkwardly cramped conditions and complaining about the food.
Boss and Mama were then in their forties, and participated in a walk for justice, from Kobe all the way to Tokyo. At the heart of their plea was the old folks and people unable to just start again and finance the rebuilding of their homes, who were now living, if they were lucky, in shanty shacks slapped up immediately after the earthquake. They were given the same response - there are too many victims, and not enough funds to support them all.
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2 comments:
Maybe that sleeping girl decided to throw in the towel :)
Personally, I'm interested in how the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake influences the Japanese psyche on a basic, subtle level and how it will manifest itself in the long term.
Hey Cheng! The earthquake majorly impacted in two ways that I can see - one, that there had been NO significant earthquakes in Kobe for 1000 years. They were feeling very insecure and somewhat victimised by nature afterwards; two, because of the "too many, bad luck" government stance, they all farken HATE their government now.
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