ラーメン Ramen

An inexpensive street food, ramen is a favorite fast food for the working man (I don’t usually see very many women in ramen shops). For college students. And, for foodies, too. Ramen is served at Michelin starred restaurants here in Tokyo who has the most Michelin starred restaurants in the world as listed in the 2021 Michelin Guide. As you’d expect, Michelin starred restaurants are expensive, but I’ve heard that in Tokyo you can eat ramen from some Michelin starred restaurants for ¥1000 ($10).

Last night Don and I met for dinner. We walked in the narrow doorway of a ramen shop down the street from our apartment. To our right was a machine that kind of looked like a vending machine. We studied the kinds of ramen we could get, we chose the one we wanted with the sauce we wanted and then we fed in a ¥1000 bill (~$10) and then a ticket spit out. Pulled down a lever and got change back. A young waiter quickly came up and took our tickets. I also got a Coca Cola. No beer. During the State of Emergency for COVID no alcohol can be sold at restaurants.

There are four major types of Japanese ramen, decided by base flavor: shio (salt-based ramen), shoyu (soy sauce-based ramen), miso (soybean paste-flavored ramen), and tonkotsu (pork bone broth ramen). Ramen may be different depending on what region of the country you are visiting.

I am interested in finding the vegan version of ramen. It is hard to believe that without the yummy fatty pork, ramen will still be ramen. We will see. Japanese restaurant food is often much better than American, but it is not always healthy. Though traditional Japanese meals center around rice and vegetables, most meals also include some fish, meat, or eggs. Restaurant food, especially fast food spots, will serve food high in fat and low in vegetables. Luckily, recently restaurants in Tokyo have increased the number of restaurants that also offer vegan choices.

I recently started reading a book on ramen that came out of the Berkeley Press, THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF RAMEN: How Political Crisis in Japan Spawned a Global Food Craze (2014) by George Solt. A major academic study on a very modest Japanese dish.

お盆 OBon

星一つ
残して落つる
花火かな 酒井ほいつ

hoshi hitotsu
nokoshite otsuru
hanabi kana (Sakai Hoitsu)

One star remains -
After the fireworks.

Every morning we look out our window down to ground level to check on the progression of the building project. At 8:00 AM, sharp, workers gather and stand at attention, and at 5:00 PM, sharp, as the local music announces quitting time, the workers disperse.

But, for the last few days our workers didn’t show up. “Oh, no! Do you think they have all been fired?” “Maybe the workers are on strike…or maybe the owners ran out of money,” Don said. “Is this one of those times when you feel you will never know what is going on? A mystery that will never be solved?” I laughed, “You’re right! That’s what this is. The gods are playing with us. Again!” During our many years of living abroad, in a place where we couldn’t read the language and couldn’t understand the news, there have been many unsolved mysteries.

Fortunately, this mystery has been solved. It’s OBon time. Yuko, the owner of Yoyogi International School, and the woman who hired Don, appreciated Don’s concern for the missing workers, but said, “Don’t worry, Don-san. It’s OBon. It is customary, especially for building contractors, to take a week or two off around OBon.”

Really? What does OBon and vacation have to do with one another? Well, for one, it is very very hot. Working in Tokyo in 93˚ weather with 73 % humidity is nearly paralyzing. Especially if you are a worker dressed for construction work. They need a vacation. On the other hand, it may be an opportunity for workers to leave the city and return to their family homes in the country.

Celebrated in Tokyo from August 12 to the 16th, OBon is a Shinto based celebration set aside to remember family members that have died. In the countryside, lanterns are hung in front of houses to guide the ancestors' spirits and graves are visited and food offerings are made at house altars and temples. At the end of Obon, floating lanterns are put into rivers, lakes and seas in order to guide the spirits back into their world. It sounds a lot like the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico at the beginning of November. (See “Coco,” the lovely film centered around the Day of the Dead.) When we lived in Ukraine, people had a similar celebration on the first Sunday after Easter.

In Japan, the trains are packed, as city dwellers travel home. Last year, during the pandemic, the government did not feel it could ask people to forego celebrating this very important family festival. “The government has no intention to request that people refrain from traveling to their hometowns or elsewhere during the upcoming Obon holidays. We are not asking people to refrain across the board. We are just asking them to be very cautious.”

But this August in 2021, the number of Covid cases have soared and the government is pleading with people not to travel, to stay in place and avoid contamination.

The number of people vaccinated in Japan seems to be going up. Japan has only two vaccinations available Pfizer (2 shots given 3 weeks apart) and Moderna (2 shots given 4 weeks apart). In the past weeks, Japan has had an explosion of new infections. On August 12, 2021, Japan registered 18,000 new cases and there were 4,989 new cases of Covid in Tokyo.

Don has led a campaign in his school to get all staff vaccinated by the end of September. 70.9% of Don’s staff are now partially or fully vaccinated (As of August 13, 2021). This number is well ahead of the national average. According to Asahi Shimbun, “As of Aug. 1, officials said 34.5 % of all Japanese had received one shot, while only about 24.6 percent had gotten the full two doses.”

Harajuku - Men’s Salon

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mbfitzmahan. Boy Art. Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan. July 31, 2021.

Sunny, a men’s only hair salon on Mozart Street in Harajuku where hair salons line the street.

Harajuku - Street Fashion

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mbfitzmahan. Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan. July 31, 2021.

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Harajuku - how do I describe this area of Tokyo? With all the colors, lively looking shops, and lots of people, you’d think I would think it’s fun. For me, it felt kind of lonely. Artificial. Maybe trying-too-hard.

But, maybe these are also good descriptors for the teenagers and the vicenarians - which, interestingly, is the demographic of the crowds walking the streets of Harajuku.

Japanese culture is such a complicated thing. Like many things Japanese, there are two opposing sides to Japanese art.

Japanese art is aesthetically refined, simple, and authentic. It’s sense of beauty is connected to the profound and esoteric spirituality of Buddhism and Shintoism. It is a philosophy that embraces wabi and sabi, ma, shibui, and more.

And, Japanese art is excessive, loud, prosaic, hackneyed, and cliché. Which is connected to anime and manga. And Harajuku fashion.

My walk down this street in Harajuku gives me an opportunity to examine my reaction to this experience. I imagine that my strong response to this art movement arises from a lack of information and familiarity. Next study: the subcultures of Tokyo.

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Harajuku, Cafe Voleur de Flueur

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mbfitzmahan. Café Voleur de Flueur. Tokyo, Japan. July 31, 2021.

The Cafe Voleur de Flueur, dark and sultry, hides down a side street of Harajuku. This little coffee shop is a welcome refuge from the sensory overload of Harajuku’s crushing bright colors and countless Lolita fashion shops.

“This is a hard time for you, isn’t it?” I asked the manager of the cafe. “Oh, yes!” he said.

Dressed in a brown apron, reflecting the coffee he served, he sighed and thanked me. The man’s face, except for his eyes, was covered by the ubiquitous white mask. The man had sad eyes.

“I really like your cafe.” I said in my long unused Japanese. “It reminds me of a time long ago. In the ‘70s, when I was a young college student here in Tokyo.”

His eyes smiled back. “Yes, I remember that time, too. Natsukashi, desu ne? It brings back such memories, doesn’t it?”

“You know it means 花泥棒 hanadorobou, flower thief?” he laughed ironically. I pretended I understood. Then I realized that the sad eyed man meant that the French name of the cafe meant flower thief. Interesting choice of names. Did the owner like the sound of the name? Was he being ironic? Where were the flowers? The thieves?

Or was the flower thief actually the Pandemic? Heavy on metaphors. Had the pandemic, like the flower thief, stolen the beauty out of life? Out of just sitting here having a simple cup of coffee in a simple Tokyo cafe?

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Rain in the AfternoOn

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mbfitzmahan. Rain in the Afternoon. Tokyo, Japan. July 30, 2021.

Snapshots - July 24-30

Snapshots of Tokyo. It is the little things that are interesting. 1. Everyone wears masks. 2. Hand sanitizer bottles in every building. 3. Hand dryers in the bathrooms are turned off to prevent spreading germs during the pandemic. 4. Cell phone battery charger rental-Rent for ¥165/hour ($1.50). Just return the charger when your phone is charged. 5. Don’t sit on this bench too long and don’t eat or use a cell phone. (Very politely asked.) 6. Electric bike rental - ¥168 for 30 minutes. 7. Rules on keeping safe during Pandemic posted inside buildings. 8. Starbucks - there are many. 9. This is me eating out for the first time after quarantine, tonkatsu (breaded pork with cabbage salad and miso soup). 10. Cigarette vending machine - very tiny packets of a handful of cigarettes. 11. Sign inside the woman’s toilet booth - asking that you don’t stay too long or use your cell phone while there. This may be because Japanese toilets and the booths are so comfortable, so clean, such a nice place to just take a rest.

Snapshots

Coming out of Quarantine.

2020 tokyo Olympics and Covid-19

Tokyo is hosting the 2020 Olympics, delayed a year and now happening even though that pesky coronavirus is still hanging around.

Because of the COVID-19 Pandemic (and other assorted scandals that often beset a country that hosts the Games), the Olympics has been controversial here in Japan. The prospect of winning the opportunity to host the Olympics was greeted by the public with joy and pride in 2013. Understandably, the happiness to host an Olympics has been tarnished by the onset of the global pandemic. In response to the danger, the 2020 starting date was delayed just 3 months before its opening in April 2020. This decision was historically unprecedented. Never before have the modern Games been postponed. They had been cancelled three times because of WWI and WWII. Never postponed.

The Japanese Government and the IOC hoped that the health hazards from the virus would diminish and that by summer 2021 things would return to normal. Unfortunately, even though effective vaccines have become available in many countries, this July a majority of people have not been vaccinated. On July 30, 2021 the percentage of Japanese who have even been partially vaccinated is only 37% (one dose of two).

I remember that when vaccines first became available to seniors over 65 in New York State in mid January 2021, it was extremely difficult to find a place to get a vaccination. Don and I both got vaccinated in late February and March. It took that long to find an appointment. Even when eligibility was limited to essential workers and seniors over 65, we had to make daily, sometimes hourly phone calls to different places throughout the state before we could find an appointment. There were sites online that recommended places we could call. I got the first reservation 2 hours south of us at a mass vaccination site. Don had a later reservation, but wanted to get the vaccination when I did. Being persistent (and fearless), he walked in with me where I had the appointment, asked around to whomever would listen and asked if there were any cancellations and if he could get a shot. Luckily, a manager sent him in for his first shot. Now in July in New York there is so much availability of the vaccine, that you can get a vaccination (often without an appointment) at pharmacies, massive vaccine sites, and at your own medical clinic. In Grand Central Terminal, as you get off your train, New York has set up a large center for vaccines, and you can walk right in and get your first shot and a reservation for your second.

Don is now trying to help all of the staff at his school here in Tokyo to get vaccinated before the end of September. It has not been an easy task. Eligibility for all citizens over 18 is theoretically in place, but many people are still having difficulty getting vaccinations. The way it works is that the ward where you live (like a borough in New York City) will send you a vaccination card and then you can take that and make a reservation to get a shot.

One of Don’s staff wrote, “I got my first dose on 9th July. I was lucky to be able to get it through my husband's workplace, otherwise I might not have an opportunity until the end of the year, as my local city sent out the vouchers and included a note to say we wouldn't be able to book a vaccination with them until November at the earliest.” Another wrote, “Last night I received my vouchers and tried to make appointments. It seems that the first vaccination is barely available and there's no vacancy for the second one in this year and next year. The website says the first and second appointments need to be made at the same time but since there's no available date for the second one, I cannot even make an appointment for the first one...”

For good updates on the COVID-19 issues in Japan listen to Mike Matsuno, a 4th generation Japanese American living in Japan.

On July 12, eleven days before the Opening of the Games, the Japanese government declared Tokyo's fourth state of emergency over the coronavirus. The state of emergency is not like a lockdown. Shops and venues are open, but they are required to close by 8 PM. No alcohol is being served at restaurants and pubs. In our area the subways are less crowded, but apparently in the busier areas of the city like Shibuya and Shinjuku people are out just like normal.

According to the Mainich News when people were asked if the state of emergency could control the spread of COVID, most said ‘no.’ It may be that the Japanese are not taking these soft measures of the government very seriously. Everyone is tired of this pandemic. Unfortunately, the Delta variant is not going away and people are getting sick.

How about the Olympics? In the face of strong public opposition, the Japanese government refused to postpone or cancel the Games. Admittedly, a lot of money in advertisement would have been lost if the Games had been cancelled. And, the cost of the buildings built for the event went into the billions.

The Olympics are fun. Although there was strong popular opposition to running the Olympics in the midst of this ‘21 pandemic, now with all the excitement of the judo, gymnastics, soft ball, and karate - the Games have been a good diversion. And Japanese athletes are doing very well. They are now leading in taking the Gold. Politicians know that in the past any country hosting a good Olympic Games gives the leader a boost in popularity as the people feel a pride in country. Prime Minister Suga is running for re-election in September. He and his party are hoping that, despite everything, the Japanese will look good to the world during this event. The Japanese athletes will win medals. The sports arenas will look magnificent. And the Games will bring hope that these viruses can be defeated, just like a sports opponent.

However, from my interpretation, a fear of cancellation was also important for other reasons. Refusal to postpone a second time would lead to a loss of Face worldwide. Japan’s major competitor and in Asia, China, is scheduled to host the Winter Olympics next year. Japan does not want to look like it could not swing the heavy burden of running the most prestigious sporting event in the world. The Olympics is more than sports, it is a test. It is a test showing how financially stable a country is. How militarily secure she is. How strong her infrastructure is. How a country looks during the Games is showcased across the world in millions of people’s TV rooms, on social media, on the Internet, in the news. A good Olympics, where she can show off her countryside and can showcase her attractive cities can bring in millions, if not billions, of dollars to the tourism trade and to the business economy.

Prime Minister Suga, elected last Fall, is not very popular, in large part because of the government’s inadequate treatment of the pandemic. He and his party hope to strengthen his position by conducting a problem free Olympics. He will be up for reelection at the end of September.

Notice Suga’s defensiveness after yesterday’s numbers on the number of cases were reported. According to the Japan Times on July 30, 2021, “More than a third of (the nationwide) 10,699 cases were in Tokyo, which confirmed a record 3,865 new infections. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga insisted there is no link between the recent surge in Japan and the holding of the Olympics.”

For all of this, or maybe because of it, I feel fortunate to be here in Tokyo in this historic time when the Olympic Games compete against the Coronavirus. Who will win? Don and I can see the Olympic Stadium in the distance and saw the fireworks and the drone light Opening Ceremony show from up here in our apartment.

2020 Olympics

mbfitzmahan. July 23, 2021

Tokyo Subway

“The next stop is Omote-sando. The door opens on the right side.” The Tokyo Subway system is efficient, clean, and easy to understand. All the signs and maps are in English and Japanese. On the platform a nice British lady announced the coming of my subway, and inside the subway car the same lady told me what stop was next. Across from my plush blue seat, I studied two digital screens that showed me where I was, where I was going, and what exits to take for what streets. I have an app that automatically pays my fare. Passmo. And it is on my Apple Watch, which means I just pass my wrist over the reader pad and I can go right onto the platform. I had my own personal guide - Google Maps - giving me directions.

That should be easy, right? Then, why was I so nervous?

Have I told you that I have very little sense of direction? It is a real thing. The Internet says so. Scientific American calls this problem a “developmental topographical disorientation.” (That’s a mouth full.) And the bewilderment of not knowing where I am and how to get where I am going, leads to a fear of getting lost which is called mazeophobia. Like being afraid of getting lost in a maze.

My first scary get-lost-in-a-foreign-country experience was right here in Tokyo. August 1968.

Within days of arriving, I was sent out, like a little bird on her own, to register for classes at Sophia University. My Japanese mother, お母さん, sat me down at the kitchen table and drew me maps, and told me how to get on and off the subway. Yup. That worked. I made it to the university and then I came back to where I started….I arrived at Ogikubo Station just as Okasan taught me. Filled with stories to share with my Japanese family, I left the station confidently. I say ‘confidently’ because this was before I developed mazeophobia. As I walked up the stairs out of the station and my eyes adjusted to the sunlight, nothing looked familiar. Well….as a matter of fact, everything looked familiar; it all looked the same. Same looking streets, cars, buildings, people. I can still feel tears forming, the metallic taste in my mouth, and the panic rising. How was I going to get back to Okasan’s house? Where would I go? Who was going to help me? Where would I spend the night?

Noticing my bewildered lost look, a young girl dressed in a blue and white school uniform, right out of a Japanese anime, asked, “大丈夫? Can I help you?” I felt inadequate; I couldn’t speak Japanese, I was lost, and I was scared. “Yes,” I answered quietly. The anime girl made some gestures like she was writing something in the air. Oh! That was a good idea! I struggle to get into my backpack and dug out a paper with some kanji written on it. My new address! Ah ha! I had exited the station through the wrong door. My new found savior, the girl in blue and white, walked me all around the station and set me on the right path home. I have to admit that I don’t know exactly what she was saying, but hand gestures and kind smiles go a long way in understanding a new foreign language.

This is not the only time I have gotten lost. Oh no. There was Ukraine. And Kathmandu. And Upstate New York. My fear of getting lost and my problem with ‘don’t know if I should go left or right’ - has not stopped me from traveling.

But, a bit of advice, if you also suffer a fear of getting lost, go with someone who has a good sense of direction - then the travel is a lot less stressful.

By the way, I didn’t get lost yesterday. I arrived at the restaurant 15 minutes early to meet my friend. In the morning, Don walked me through directions. He has a good sense of direction. And, loves getting almost lost. Because he is never really lost.

Tokyo - The Skyscape

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Quarantined 23 stories about the streets, I have a new subject to photograph. It’s the same in all good photography. Look for light. Look for different perspectives. Fall in love.

The tricky part, for me, has been finding a connection with the cityscape.

My landscape is made up of buildings. Man-made worlds built for work and for living. Structures of concrete and glass. Yet, the scene is not devoid of beauty. On the contrary, the clean aesthetic of the landscape fits well into modern minimalist art genre.

If I look a little closer I see a roof garden. A low lying green roof. A grassy field in the distance.

I generally take photographs of people, but even my landscape photos are best when I get to know them. I’ve become quite attached to my Woods and her barn in the Hudson Valley. Through times of snow, rain, and sun. Changing seasons dress the Woods in colors. And not primary colors, but lime green, and hunters green. Tawny brown and amber. Chinese red and mustard yellow.

But this landscape of high rise buildings is foreign to my taste. I can’t see any people from up here. Even in the windows of the office buildings. I see in the far away, little people walking along the streets. Riding their bicycles. Maybe there are people in the little cars whizzing by in their little box shaped cars.

At first I felt drawn to the landscapes above the city. The clouds, the setting sun, the moon. After all those are my friends at home. The clouds remember me and are happy to show off throughout the day.

Matsuo Basho said In composing haiku there are two ways, “becoming” and “making.”

Basho identified “becoming” as superior to “making” which he felt was inauthentic. For a haiku poet, to learn from nature should mean to submerge himself, to perceive the delicate life and feel its feelings, out of which a poem forms itself.

Basho believed, according to scholar Makoto Ueda, beauty in nature is a manifestation of the supreme creative force which flows through all things in the universe, animate and inanimate. The artist can depict this force “when the object enters his mind and dyes it in its own color, whereupon a poem emerges by itself.”

photographs: mbfitzmahan. Tokyo from above. July 2021. Tokyo, Japan.

Covid Tests and Visas

Prior to boarding our Japan Airline flight from New York to Tokyo, Don and I took 2 sets of nasal PCR tests. Those are the kind where they stick a very long Qtip up your nose. Sometimes that feels like a little tickle, other times it feels like…well, you can imagine. Just so you’ll know…(you can skip this part if it is too vivid or boring) a “PCR” is a molecular COVID-19 test that detects the genetic material of the virus using a technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A fluid sample is collected by inserting a long nasal swab (nasopharyngeal swab) into your nostril and taking fluid from the back of your nose. PCR tests are generally very accurate, but the antigen rapid test can miss some cases.

Don and I didn’t really care. We celebrated getting the right test at the right time. We went to one site where we drove up to an unmarked door, and a nurse covered in white protective gear - from head to toe - looking a bit like an alien, came over to my window and then plunged the long stick down my nose. Imagine, I gladly let her do that. Then it was Don’s turn. 30 minutes later the same alien came out and happily gave us the results of an antigen test. Negative! Unfortunately, the second test results of the required PCR test, didn’t get to us in time for boarding the plane. But, we knew, no test - no flight to Tokyo. The next day we went to an urgent care facility in Fishkill. They had no aliens at that facility. Just doctors and nurses wearing masks. They gave us results from a PCR in 45 minutes from an onsite lab. Also, Negative.

The real miracle was that a few weeks earlier we got a resident’s visa to live in Japan. Don called the Consulate in early May, “Hi. My wife and I have been recruited to work in Tokyo. Will we be able to get a visa?” The polite lady who answered the phone didn’t laugh at this request. After all, she is a polite Japanese lady. But there was a bit of an un-Japanese guffaw in her voice, “Oh, I very much doubt you will be able to get into the country in the near future. We are not giving out visas.” Hearing the disappointment in Don’s voice, she said, “Well, this decision is not up to me. Please send a copy of your papers in to us, and someone will look at them and see if a different decision can be made. But, please do not be discouraged.”

So we sent copies of letters and other stuff to a distant skyscraper in downtown New York. Four or five days later, “Mr. Fitzmahan, perhaps you and your wife would like to come into the Consulate and hand in your papers to apply for a visa,” said another polite Japanese lady. What??? Really??? On May 11th we took a 2 hour train into Grand Central Station. We had had our two Pfizer vaccines two months earlier.

Grand Central was nearly abandoned. Only one coffee shop was opened. Even Starbucks was closed. No Starbucks is a sign that we were suffering from a plague. All the table and chairs were turned upside down. No place to sit and enjoy that one cup of coffee available at the station. We walked out into the streets. New York City was beautiful! Sunny. A perfect temperature. The air was clean and smelled good. Clean streets. Flower boxes filled with red and yellow flowers lined the sidewalks. And no people. We walked down Park Avenue. Just the two of us. There were food trucks, though. Waiting. For New York.

The Century One skyscraper housed the Consulate. A uniformed guard took us up to the 18th floor. We were directed to an empty room and we took our application and documents up to a clerk sitting behind a double plastic window. “Yes. What can I do for you?”

So, apply we did. Did we did. I don’t know why I just turned into Yoda speech. It just came out. Yoda is my guru who reminds me, “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

Three weeks later, Don’s cell rang. Don and I were driving back to Austin with my sister after a 5 day trip to West Texas. Through the speaker of the car, a friendly young man’s voice echoed, “Hello, is this Don Fitzmahan?” “Yes.” “I am from the New York Japanese Consulate.” Always friendly, Don asked, “What’s your name?” “Oh, we aren’t allowed to give you our names. I am Number 17. Which is fortunate, because my mother named me Number 17.” “Well, nice to meet you, Number 17. What can I do for you?” “Oh no, it is what I can do for you. We have your visa here waiting for you.” “Oh, you mean we got our visas?” “Yes, that is what I said.” “Does that mean we can go to Japan?” “Yup! Start packing your bags.”

Japan has closed its borders to nearly every foreigner trying to visit or work in the country. At the time, Japan made headlines because she set one of the strictest entry restrictions among developed countries. Now, every other country has closed its borders. Opened its borders. Closed its borders.

Gone are the days when an American tourist can come into Japan visa-free for 3 months. No tourists in Japan. I must admit I didn’t realize how many countries, 18 months into the Pandemic, still have closed borders. Last week, Canada just reopened its borders to American citizens. On our side, we haven’t opened our borders to Canadians. How ironic! I’d rather have a Canadian come and visit me, than many Americans. Polite, well mannered Canadians! And, more Canadians are vaccinated than we are in the United States.

We’re happy and mystified that the Japanese gave us a visa. Don’t really know why. A colleague of Erin’s, who lives in Osaka, didn’t believe that Erin’s parents were moving to Japan. “No way! It is not possible. They are mistaken. They aren’t letting anyone into Japan. Certainly, not foreigners. No way!” And my good friend, Miranda, a classmate from Sophia University in Tokyo, who has lived in Tokyo nearly her whole life, wrote, “Well, I am speechless, completely taken aback to know about this new chapter of your lives.”

Long Time Indeed

It was a letter I was expecting. Not because anyone told me it was coming. I just had a feeling that someday we would get a call to go back to Japan. “Long time indeed since we’ve had a chat…..sitting with you and Maureen and some good beers seems a long time ago,” Matthew wrote. Matthew is the Head of School in Nagoya and was Don’s boss when he was principal seven years ago. “How are you both? Crazy days and I do hope you are staying well.”

Before the pandemic, maybe a couple of years ago (who keeps track of time, anymore?) we stopped in to see Matthew in Nagoya on our way to spend six weeks in Kyushu and Kyoto.

“I have an ulterior motive for this out of the blue mail. There is a school in Tokyo looking for an interim Head of School for one year….” I could hear Matthew’s gentle British accent through the cyber pages. “No idea if this is something that is even on your radar as a possible…but thought I would send this your way in case you felt like a year back in Japan. They contacted me today asking for any recommendations and I thought I’d drop you a line…”

Don didn’t tell me when he first got the email. Not the next few days. “Mo, I felt I owed it to you to tell you. I got an email from Matthew,” he said.

“Matthew Parr?” I asked incredulously. Maybe Matthew was coming to New York. But, then with the pandemic and Japan nearly in lockdown. Probably not.

“Yes, he’s wondering if we are interested in going back to Japan. To Tokyo. To be a Head of School at a little international school. They need our help.”

I stopped to breathe. Don’t just jump in and tell him what to do, I told my self. Be calm. Be careful. Be a grown up, I thought. What do you think?” I asked as if I really wondered. What did he think? Of course, we wanted to go back. Well, let me edit that sentence. I, let me put that in bold, I really wanted to go back to Japan. I didn’t need to think about it. Wow! Wow! Wow! What an exciting opportunity. Maybe a portal. (I’ve been watching too many science fiction movies during this Pandemic…)

“I don’t know. It is going to be a lot of work…” he said. Was Don hoping I’d agree? And let him, just this once, stay in his little backyard? Stay and work in the garden, cut some wood, do stuff you do on 20 acres of woods?

Who was it for me to disagree? Don deserved his garden, his wood chopping, fixing the roof. And, of course being a Head of School in a struggling school would be a huge amount of work. We’d done that kind of work before.

To work with an owner of a small school could be a nightmare. And Don would be doing the job. Not me. “It will be a lot of work. I can’t imagine what a mess this school is in. Whew! But, still it is very cool that you’ve been asked. It’s an honor that Matthew came looking for you all the way to New York from Japan. And, during the Pandemic!” I said.

I was just getting started… “And, besides, what else do you have to do, anyway? Imagine… Japanese food, speaking Japanese, temples, Fall leaves, great culture, Japanese food, sushi, udon, teriyaki, Japanese food….This retirement stuff is highly overrated, don’t you think? We could GO TO JAPAN! It is so cool, too…this invite also says that you - at 72 years old - you are not dead, yet! You are AWESOME!”

I didn’t go to law school for nothing! Don looked at me, a bit dazed. Hmmmmm. He had been overwhelmed with my passion to live abroad before. And, what could he say? He is a star! He likes little schools. And, he is a sucker for wanting to help people that need his help.

So Don started a Zoom relationship with the owner, and began to learn of the mounting problems that the school was suffering. Within a few days of Don’s first call, the last Head of School quit. Just up and left, without telling anyone. Hmmmmmm.

Clouds of Tokyo

Even Tokyo
Has clouds.
July afternoon.
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Mbfitzmahan. Even Tokyo. July 10, 2021. Tokyo, Japan.