Kind of a personal blog tonight. It was six years ago last week that my mother died -- August 3, 2000. That's her in this picture taken on Mt. Hakodate sometime back in the 80's. The dashing fellow standing to her right is my dad and that dishevelled, derelict looking ne'er-do-well to her left would be me.
Maybe I should explain a little more about the picture.
First about my mother. I know it looks like we just woke her out of bed when this picture was taken but that's actually not the case. She's gone now so I guess she won't mind if I mention this. For many years my mom suffered with MD (Muscular Dystrophy) and, like many people with her condition, as she grew older she had a hard time getting around. She didn't like people to know about it and tried to hide it as best she could, and you would never catch her using a cane or wheelchair unless absolutely necessary. If you look closely you can see she's standing rather stiffly and both my dad and I have got our hands on her back to kind of prop her up a little. Believe me, if we weren't there to hold her she wouldn't be standing the way she is. Anyways, she was a real trooper to pose for this picture because believe me, it wasn't easy.
As for me and my appearance I have no such excuse. Let me explain about the jacket. You see we had travelled all the way from my mom and dad's place in Tokyo on this particular day, and when we left Tokyo Station that morning it was hotter than blazes (and humid too). The last thing I expected when I got off the train was 15 degrees. Needless to say I hadn't packed any kind of sweater or coat, and when we arrived in Hakodate the only thing I had to keep me warm was this ratty old windbreaker thingy you see me wearing in the picture. Believe me, if I knew it was going to be that cold up there I would packed something a little more GQ. Oh, and in case you're wondering the answer is no. There is no way I'd ever get that thing zipped around that fat belly of mine.
Which brings me to the fat belly. I should probably explain that too. The train ride from Tokyo to Hokkaido (Japan's northernmost island) was simply amazing. We took the bullet from Tokyo Station all the way up to where the line ended in Aomori, the northernmost city on the main island of Honshu. I had bought one of those Japan Rail passes when I got to my mom and dad's place in Tokyo, and without checking with my dad first I bought the first class type (the green pass, I think). Well, it turns out that mom and dad couldn't afford to ride first class all over Japan so they got stuck back in coach while I was travelling in first class. It was ok, though. They didn't mind and it gave me an opportunity to sort of mingle without the benefit of an interpreter.
Anyways, there I was luxuriating in first class and stretching out in those nice comfortable chairs they give you, and I got so comfortable that I forgot to go back to the dining car to get something to eat. In fact, once I removed my passport from my back pocket so that it wasn't digging in to my rear end I was feeling real comfortable. I just put the passport in the little magazine pouch and stretched out and aahhhh...fell asleep.
When we got to Aomori my dad woke me up and told me we'd have to hurry up to catch the train to Hakodate. I was looking forward to this part of the trip because the train from Aomori actually leaves the island of Honshu and travels under the Tsugaru Straits through the Seikan Tunnel on it's way to Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido. Up until the completion of the Chunnel over in Europe, the Seikan Tunnel had been the longest tunnel in the world. When my dad told me we'd have to hurry that immediately got my attention. I got up, grabbed my little overnight bag, followed him out onto the platform, followed him down the stairs and under the tracks, and then back up the stairs to the platform to board the Hakodate train. As we boarded the train it was at that precise moment that I realized...
Well, I had about 2 minutes to sprint back down the stairs and under the tracks and back up the stairs to the bullet train and into the car where the little magazine pouch with my passport was, and then sprint back out of the bullet train and across the platform and down the stairs and under the tracks and back up the stairs to catch the train to Hakodate. And I mean I was sprinting. I must have looked like Desmond Howard returning a kickoff as I was ducking and weaving my way through the crowd and straight-arming anyone who got in my way, all the time yelling "Chotto mate! Chotto mate! Pasuportu, pasaportu! Chotto mate!".
And (whew) I made it.
I got onboard the Hakodate train with my heart racing at about two hundred beats per minute, sweat running down my back and into my underwear, and as my stomach began to growl I suddenly realized that I hadn't eaten anything since dinner last night. I was sitting there in the train gulping for air, throat dry, and starving. As the train began to roll on it's way two things immediately came to mind: First, riding a train through a tunnel isn't all it's cracked up to be. I mean a tunnel, even the longest tunnel in the world (at that time) is really just a big hole in the ground, isn't it. Anyone who's ever ridden BART under San Fransisco Bay will know what I'm talking about. One minute it's light and scenery is going by the windows, and the next minute you're in the tunnel and it's dark. And it stays dark for a long, long time, and there isn't a whole lot to see. Big deal. I could just lock myself in the closet if I wanted to look at blackness all day.
My second thought was that if this little train didn't have a dining car I was going to have to start gnawing on the furniture. I got up to look around and sure enough--it had seats and it had bathrooms, but no dining car. So that was that. I was going to have to spend the next hour or two riding in this big black hole with nothing to look at and nothing to eat or drink. Well, almost. Luckily, about halfway through the ride someone came around selling bentos and water, so I scarfed down one of those but it just made me hungrier.
Which takes me back to the picture. The first thing good thing that happened to me after my debacle in Aomori was finding myself in Hakodate. For those of you who might not know it, Hokkaido is famous the world over for it's fresh seafood. My mother was born and raised in Hokkaido so she knew all about the food, and it wasn't long before we found a little restaurant and she suggested I try the curried shrimp. I ordered up a big old plate of the stuff and, just like mom said, it was mmmm mmmmm good. Spicy curry and a strangely sweet tasting shrimp. I thought maybe they sugared them but mom said the shrimp up there were naturally sweet. I was too hungry to argue so I ordered myself another plate of shrimp instead.
And that explains the picture. (By the way if you've read this far then congratulations. I would have stopped around paragraph two). After I stuffed myself it was dad's idea to go up to the top of Mt. Hakodate and look at the view. I would have just as soon gone to a hotel somewhere where I could lay down and digest, but dad wanted me to go up to the mountain and see the view. (And by the way, I don't usually make a pig of myself at mealtime but when you have a chance to enjoy the local cuisine I say go for it. Who knows if you'll ever be back there again. Right?). So off we went to Mt. Hakodate and that's the reason for the bulging belly. At the time the picture was taken it was full of about 20 pounds of shrimp.
But I don't want to talk about that, I want to talk about mom. She looks real tired in the picture but believe me she was pretty excited that night. She was born in a little village about halfway up the coast between Hakodate and Sapporo, and she was glad to back where all her family was. That's why I like this picture so much. It's not really such a great picture photographically speaking, but I like remembering how happy she was to see everybody and, yeah, to show me off a little too. I hadn't met any of her family before or been to her hometown, so I know she got a kick out of parading me in front of all her relatives. I just wish we could go back and do it again sometime.
Six years and I still can't believe you're gone. It doesn't feel like it anyways.
I told you this was going to be kind of a personal blog.
TIP* Just so this whole post doesn't get too maudlin and sappy I thought I'd leave a little tip. If you ever travel to Hokkaido the one absolute thing you must do is try the Chankonabe at the Kitanofuji restaurant in Sapporo. It's a great big bowl (more like a bucket really) of fresh seafood from the local waters, and I mean all kinds of seafood - shrimp. scallops, fish, crab, on and on and on, all served up like a stew in an absolutely delicious steaming hot broth. It's also the meal of choice for Japan's Sumo wrestlers, and the restaurant was in fact founded by a former Sumo wrestler. Of course it's been about 15 or 20 years since I was back there so maybe the restaurant isn't there anymore, but it should be. When we went my Japanese cousins played a little joke on me by telling me to order the chankonabe, and when the waiter came back and placed this big ol' bucket of food in front of me they all had a big laugh. We ended up sharing about two orders between the five of us and even that was a little too much. Give it a try, you'll like it, and then head out to the Susukino to sing a little karaoke. That's the way they used to have fun up in Hokkaido.
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