Tokyo Burbs
We went to Yokohama to visit an old high school friend of my mother’s, Kazuko Yamamoto. Our bus arrived in Shinjuku station, early in the morning and Kazuko was very worried about us encountering a homeless person there. A homeless person. One. Coming from the USA and recently from Indochina this was quite a perspective shift. We mentioned all the stray animals in Europe to Kazuko and she said that there are no stray dogs in Yokohama. I believe it.
By now we had a sense of what it means to be a visitor in Japan, but the Yamamotos generosity was still surprising. We just wanted to drop in and say “hi” for an evening, but they effectively captured us. The Yamamoto’s tried to put us up at real hotel for a week. We haggled it down to two days as we had a plane to catch and Tokyo to explore on our own. The moment we were in Kazuko’s presence we could not pay for anything: food, train tickets, even a newspaper. We had to be very careful about even intimating wants or needs lest Kazuko suddenly inconvenience herself to provide it for us.
Mr. Yamamoto works from 8am to 1am (!) most weekdays as a manager at Fujitsu. Their daughter Maya lives at home and works the same schedule at the same company. Their other daughter Yuka, is in University studying Chemistry. Kazuko works more reasonable hours as an English teacher, but does all the housework. Although Americans work longer hours than the Japanese nowadays. In Japan the long hours are spread throughout the economic classes more evenly. Japan is like 80-90% middle class.
We got guided tours of the Yokahama bay with slidewalks and modern architecture, Yokahama Chinatown, and Kurakuna, Tokyo. The Yamamotos also took us to Mr. Yamamoto’s father’s house in the middle of a US Navy base. The house stood inside a little bamboo wood dotted with fruit trees shielding it from the Navy trailers. It was a nice old traditional house with tatami inside and a traditional garden. I’m still not sure how Mr. Yamamoto Sr. saved his house, its the only one there. It sounds like he was a royal pain in the ass to just the right people.
Photos of Yokahama and Kunakura.
We had a great time with the Yamamotos even while trying to dodge their generosity. But eventually we struck out on our own to set up camp in a very poor area of Tokyo…