My Japan

As with most things in life, it's when what we have taken for granted starts to go downhill that we begin to appreciate how much it means to us. I have found this to be true of Japan. I moved away from it and made a whole new life here in the U.S over 10 years ago, and in many ways it's been "out of sight, out of mind." I used to marvel sometimes that I didn't miss it more, having grown up there. But it's sure been on my mind for the past week.

So here it is: I miss Japan. I miss it and cry for it because of the unimaginable suffering of the bereaved and displaced. I know this same sad scenario has played out many times over the past years in different countries, images of people wandering the streets without homes or missing family, and it's always been terrible to see, but this is different. These people feel like my long lost relatives. I lived in small villages by the ocean. Those destroyed houses you see on the news, I stayed in any number of ones just like them all my young life. They are my people too, and I grieve for them and pray for them. And I'm proud of them. I see articles about how no one is looting, how desperate people are still lining up for food & water, patiently; how hundreds of men are basically sacrificing their lives at the nuclear power plants to try and save everyone else, and I think, yes, those are my people too, I'm proud to say that I was born there.

May my family there be safe and fed and warm, may everyone else be as well, and may God be with those who lost so much. And mostly, may it all end well and heal, not least so that I can take my little family back to the place that gave me so much and show them all about where Mommy came from.

I am posting a poem that I wrote long ago, while I still lived there, about Japan. (Thanks, Nikki, for digging it up for me!) It's poor poetry, but I happen to like this one almost best of all, because I said what I came to say in it. If you don't speak Japanese and want to know what the weird words mean, I included a glossary at the bottom. Enjoy.

My Japan:

Weeping willow, tall and fair
Woodland fern, and maidenhair.
Aged Bonsai, twisted limb
Greenest bud on newest stem;

Orange skies at close of day,
Semis sing the night away.
Morning glories, fading fast
Small blue buds and spider grass.

Bamboo forest, small and proud
Long brown leaves, strewn on the ground.
Little sisters run & chase;
Grass stained shorts, a purple face.
Swinging high, swinging low
This is the way the summers go.

I see the moon, the moon sees me;
Homeward walk, outlined tree;
Birthday candles, hanabi,
Cool yukata, matsuri.

Glowing lanterns, strung on high,
Dancing platforms tower by.
Catch a goldfish; catch him twice;
Pink and green and yellow ice.

"Gaijin da!" "This is a pen";
Ice-cream for a hundred yen.
Kiokabe, stifling heat,
Tickling fan and crispy sheet.

Yellow nightlight, shoji door,
Bean bag pillow on the floor.
Now I lay me down to sleep,
True contentment, joy complete.
Father singing sweet and low,
This is the way the summers go.

Glossary for those who don't speak Japanese:

Semis: cicadas

Hanabi: fireworks

Yukata: summer kimono

Matsuri: festival

"Gaijin da!": "It's a foreigner"

Kiyokabe: traditional wall covering in older Japanese homes

Shoji doors: rice paper doors