Two days later, we departed for the mountains to see the cedar trees. It was supposed to be a 12 hour walk, but took us two days. On the first day, we encountered many wild deer and monkeys, which were just meters away. When we saw monkey mothers cuddling their babies, our feelings were tickled. Stephen was more fascinated with toads, which we often came across our paths. ‘I’ve never seen such big toads, as big as a house brick’. Stephen said. He spent a lot of time and films to take their pictures, squatting like toads.
The pre-historic cedar trees looked very special. The original tree shape has been distorted and altered into giant sculptures. Despite being far away from the main island, the island receives a large number of pilgrimages to the Yaku cedar trees every year. There were many people around the oldest tree; some were offering sake (Japanese rice wine) and fruits to the tree, putting their hands together to pray. We didn’t have anything to offer to the tree, but prayed to have a healthy baby and easy birth.
It wasn’t difficult to travel with a baby. Ken was happy in a sling. My sling was designed to carry a baby either on your front or on your back. Since Ken was already quite heavy, I carried him on my back, but Stephen put him on his front. We bought one-week Japan Railway passes, which allowed us to travel free anywhere in Japan by JR. We headed for northern Japan, seeking autumn leaves. At that time, I had missed maple trees turning into ‘blazing red’ so much, since there are not many maple trees in England. Ever since this birth of our son, we have given up using tents, and now stay in minshuku, family-owned inns. A Japanese inn provides evening meals and breakfast. We stayed in cheap inns, though evening meals were impressive. They usually have several different dishes!
When Ken was one year old, I planned to go to Japan via Korea. We stayed in Chonga-sanga in Seoul. In some way, the town reminded me of Shinjyuku, Tokyo’s busiest town: a forest of modern buildings, enormous numbers of people coming and going and retail business is everywhere. On the other hand, the town had a totally different face: a long row of stalls selling traditional fast food in the front of modern buildings, competing with established restaurants. There was a lot of amazing side roads, where ‘mom and pop’ businesses were flourishing. Hundreds of stalls were packed together, whose vigorous atmosphere was a lure for travellers, like us. That night, we hung around those areas until mid night. People were still drinking and eating and the town was full of vitality and Ken was calmly sleeping on my back in a sling.
Korea is a child-loving nation and we frequently had fun travelling in Korea with Ken. On the second day when Ken received money from a stranger, we were terribly embarrassed, but soon got used to this custom. Someone explained, ‘Take it, so that the person who gave money will have good luck.’ When an old woman stretched her hand and touched Ken’s front, we were puzzled, but soon learned that she would receive good luck by doing so. Many people congratulated us for having a boy. Ken was treated like VIP and we were just his guardians. We stayed in Seoul for four days and left for Pusan where we took an over-night boat trip to Shimonoseki, the southen end of the main island of Japan.
The following year, we visited Korea again. This time we went down to Hondo, a remote island in the south sea of Korea. The holiday on the island turned out quite differently to what I had expected. I was thinking of having a holiday lying on the beach and swimming in the sea for a few days. No sooner had I arrived on the island than I realized nobody was swimming or lying on the beach! It was the end of summer and many people were still arriving on the island. Where had they gone? Stephen suggested I shouldn’t worry about other people, but swim. But how could I do it? Everyone would stare at me. Also, being in swim suits in public may not be acceptable on this island.
When we couldn’t find any suitable restaurants, our disappointment built up. There were not many restaurants on the island, all looked rather shabby but the price on the menus hanging on the walls were very expensive, compared to the price which we had paid in Seoul. Moreover, they were all written in Korean! Later, we realized Korean tourists come to this island to have local specialized food, sashimi (raw fish and seafood). The life of the island was backward, which brought back some memories when I was a child. Wandering for half a day, we found there were not many things to do, besides, I had started to feel uncomfortable on this island. I think the Korean people had realised I was Japanese and their hatred towards Japan had passed on to me. Unfortunately, there is a lot of friction remaining between Japan and Korea because of our histories.
Not knowing what to do, we were strolling around the harbour, where we saw someone waving their hands. They were a couple, who we had come across on several occasions over the last two days. The first time we noticed them was the day before taking a boat to the island at a restaurant in the port town on the Korean Peninsular. We thought they were a middle aged man and a young mistress, but later we found that she had grandchildren, so she must have been in her late forties at least!
I like watching people, because some people stimulate my imagination and she was that sort of person. When she came into the restaurant, she immediately caught my attention. She looked into a fish tank carefully, chose something and a man pulled out an octopus from the tank. Soon after, the octopus was served at the table, it was sashimi (raw), so fresh that I could see its muscles were still twitching on her plate. She picked up one piece with chopsticks and flung it into her shiny red mouth. She ate one piece after another while the man hardly ate any, just watching her eat. The second time we saw them was again at a restaurant by the beach. She was checking a bucket where fish were kept and ordered sashimi.
At the harbour, chairs, tables and parasols were set, where tourists were having a rest. There, she was eating sashimi again. It was shell fish. I said to Stephen, ‘I will try it’. We sat at the next table to them. I gestured towards what she was eating, she pointed at local ladies selling seafood under parasols and then she went to the lady and came back with sashimi. I tried to pay, but she waved her hands to refuse. It was delicious! As soon as she understood I was enjoying sashimi, she bought me a different type of shellfish. We bought beer for them and then started a little party. When the sky started losing its colour, they led us to a restaurant. The restaurant had a big fish tank and she went to the fish tank, came back to our table and said ‘Good.’ Looking back, I don’t know how we enjoyed that evening because they hardly spoke any English and we didn’t know any Korean, but it was a great evening. The man really liked Ken. He treated Ken like his grandchild. Ken was climbing on his shoulder, pulling his nose and pinching his cheeks, but he kept smiling.
I think that the bill was huge, because the man paid by credit card. That is unusual in Korea because it is a money-orientated country and I had hardly seen anyone using credit cards. We tried to pay, but the man refused to accept any money from us. There was a little debate between Stephen and I. Stephen thought we should accept his treat to save his pride, but it made me uncomfortable. Also in Japan, ‘No’ doesn’t mean ‘No’ When a host insists to pay for everything, it is appropriate for a guest to insist on some contribution or return an equivalent gift. I don’t know how this rule would apply in Korea but I put some money in his ‘mistress’s’ pocket, saying ‘This is for you, not for him.’
Since I couldn’t swim on Hondo island, I had increasingly longed to swim in the sea. I love swimming in the sea, which gives me a great feeling of freedom. Ken turned three years old and the seaside seemed to be the most suitable destination for our holiday.
Over the last two years, we spent holidays in the Okinawa prefecture. It is far south of the main islands and its climate is almost tropical, which allows you to swim for six months of the year. Moreover, there is plenty of tropical fish swimming. We stayed on small islands on both occasions, Zamami island for the first visit and Yoron island for the second visit. Okinawa used to be a popular holiday destination before Japan’s bubble economy in the late 1980s. The stronger Japan’s economy became, the larger the numbers of people chose their holiday destination outside of Japan, where prices are relatively cheap. As a result, the tourism in Okinawa has suffered, especially Yoron, which once was described as a Japanese Hawaii. It has been left behind while the rest of the Japanese economy flourished.
I had grown up in Tokyo and had a job there. For people like me, it was difficult to believe how modest the islanders’ life was. It looked like it hadn’t changed much since the 1950s when I was born. An islander explained that every year about 100 people graduate from the secondary school in the island and the 100 young people leave the island, because there is no job for them so that the island’s population has become smaller and smaller.
We spent five days on the island, swimming with tropical fish and receiving a lot of treats from locals. (This time we also treated them a lot). Ken was extremely happy floating and splashing in the sea. However, it was such a shame that Ken didn’t want to put his face down into the water where he would have seen plenty of fish swimming under the surface. If he had known, he would have been even more excited. (I must teach him how to swim properly for the next holiday.)
Towards the end of the holiday, I realised the people living near the beach, where we stayed, knew everything that we were doing on the island. At that time gossiping about us seemed to be the most intriguing thing for them, since they had not many things to do and had to fill their extensive free time.
This year we are planning to go to Ogasawara Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We are looking forward to it very much.