September 23–27雷乃収声 Kaminari sunawachi koe o osamu - Thunder ceases
September 28–October 2蟄虫坏戸 Mushi kakurete to o fusagu - Insects hole up underground
October 3–7水始涸 Mizu hajimete karuru - Farmers drain fields
This one was among a set of three okasan gave me first week of September. The sounds of frogs and crickets, particularly in the early morning and toward evening are harbingers of the changing season.
Friday, September 16th
It's over thirty minutes to sunrise when my 5:00 am alarm sounds. It's quiet. The seasonal clamour of cicadas is two weeks behind us. Though the distinctive early morning chill that I associated with the beginning of fall as a kid back in Canada is still over a month away, the red dragonflies and longer shadows cast by a lower slung mid-afternoon sun are sure signs that summer 2022 is quickly drawing to a close.
While it's still hotter than the hottest summer day I ever had to endure as a kid in the Vancouver of yore, from Tuesday I've noticed a marginal change on my late morning runs up the canal and back. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was 'cool'.
Maybe just a bit less suffocating.
The humidity is also a little more extreme than it usually is heading into the third week of September. I suppose that could be attributed to the busy storm season we've been having. Typhoon number 14 is heading this way as I type. According to a potpourri of less than reliable local weather forecasts, these precincts will be getting sideswiped by said storm on Sunday and/or Monday.
This could mean anything from an hour or two of moderate wind and rain, to a day long arse whupping and piss down of Biblical proportions. The last weather bulletin I saw suggested that something along the lines of an 'end of days' type of scenario is likely to unfold around the southern tip of Kyushu from tomorrow evening, then spread straight across the archipelago over the course of the long weekend, doing dirty to every major population centre on it's way.
Saturday morning we have to go out to Mayumi's place for her husband's second annual memorial ceremony. After forty five minutes of Buddhist sutra chanting, the entire group will be heading across town to our neighbourhood, to do lunch at the same place Mayumi reserved for the post ceremony gathering last year. Houraiken is Nagoya's oldest (est. 1873), most famous barbecued eel restaurant. The food is amazing. It's also exclusive, expensive...and really snobby.
Fingers crossed that things go a bit better over there than they did last year.
*(for the skinny on all of that, check October 2021's rather lengthly dispatch, The Space Between, Part 5, 'A season adrift')
In addition to being the anniversary of Mayumi's husband's passing, September 16th is also okasan's birthday. She'll be celebrating her 88th go around the sun. Tomorrow's challenge will be in trying to find the right balance between a sombre, respectful memorial observance for my late brother-in-law, and a happy recognition of the family matriarch's special day.
For my part, all I need to do is be present and accounted for, follow Mina's cues, and keep my head respectfully down, and mouth shut for a few hours.
After the lunch thing wraps, we'll be relieving Mayumi and co. of the old lady, and bringing her back to our place. After an all-to-brief summer pause, we've resumed our regular bi-weekly rotation, and will be charged with minding her until Monday evening.
We're into what the natives ostensibly refer to as the 'Silver Week' holiday period. This year that entails two consecutive long weekends. Both Monday and Friday of next week are bank holidays - making for a somewhat shortened work week for the salaried set. We'll have okasan for the first leg, and Mayumi's crew get her for the second. This works out fine, as I'd rather get our bit sorted and out of the way sooner than later.
Fingers crossed that the local deities see fit to look upon us with some measure of favour this weekend.
Things could go sideways and south very easily.
Sunday, September 18th.
Nanmadol.
That's what they've named it. It's now being touted as not only the fiercest tropical storm front anywhere on the planet; but among the five most powerful typhoons to have ever set sites on western Japan - as far anyone knows, at least. It's said to be on par with a Category 5 hurricane in strength.
Only four storms that powerful have ever made landfall in the U.S.
Hurricane Katerina was a Category 5 storm, and the deadliest hurricane to roar out of the Gulf of Mexico in recent memory. Residents of southern Kyushu will be looking at something of a similar magnitude coming ashore sometime later tonight.
As for us, it seems that we can expect the worst we're going to get from tomorrow evening into Tuesday. What that will entail is hard to predict. The last few times we've pretty much dodged the bullet. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
It's a bank holiday, anyways...so no one needs to risk life and limb going out if the storm suddenly speeds up and hits tomorrow afternoon. Mina does need to drive the old lady back to Mayumi's at some point. How early that ends up being will no doubt depend on the weather situation.
Yesterday's memorial ceremony and lunch thing went off without a hitch. Either I'm getting more adept at tuning things out, or those CBD infused brownies that Mina ordered awhile ago actually work.
While weed essentially remains on par with heroin over here (possession or discovered use thereof is still basically punishable by death), for some reason the ne'er do well government has recently decided to allow a range of CBD infused products to be marketed and sold. No prescriptions necessary. You won't find these products advertised, or available in your local pharmacy, though. Your average J-native has no idea what CBD is, let alone how or where to get it.
Most doctors, if not entirely unaware that these products even exist ,will simply shrug if asked about their efficacy. As far as the 'mainstream' is concerned, unless it's recognized in a reputable medical journal, then licensed and manufactured by a major pharmaceutical company, it's considered a 'snake oil' type pseudo medicine. Doctors in Japan are beholden to 'big pharma', and expected to 'push' their products.
One basically has to go online to track the stuff down. Gummies, oils, skin creams, soft drinks...brownies. It's hard to say whether the stuff actually works or not. Maybe it's like a placebo? Just the idea of it. I don't know.
Anyways, it's the nation's first baby step toward recognizing the medicinal value of a plant that had been used widely and without incident here for millennia before Douglas MacArthur decided to impose the draconian, American authored 'Cannabis Control Act' at the height of the U.S. Occupation, back in 1948. It's likely that this law was implemented more to curtail the G.I.'s out of control partying, syphilis spreading and campaign of impregnating and ditching local females than to protect the interests of the defeated and subjugated natives.
It's certain that the edict destroyed an industry that had been part of Japanese culture for the length and breadth of the nation's history.
It's funny how effectively the country's conquerors were able to brainwash their new colonial subjects with mid-twentieth century American rhetoric and propaganda.
As a junior high school aged girl, okasan was taught to believe that the U.S. had done the Japanese people a favour by dropping Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; that this 'hard decision' saved many more lives than it cost.
Of course, since de-classified U.S. military documents from that period now paint quite a different picture of what really went on behind the scenes, and suggest that the use of these devices at that particular juncture was far from necessary. The war was essentially over. Japan lacked the resources to continue fighting, and had made several entreaties to surrender, on the sole condition that the Showa Emperor Hirohito be left on the throne, unmolested.
The Americans asserted that nothing less than a complete, unconditional surrender would be acceptable. After they'd gone ahead and completed their 'great experiment' on two cities full of living, breathing human beings, they ultimately left the Emperor on his throne...unmolested, as it were.
Still...the same tired old tropes and excuses for using the atomic bombs to 'save lives' continue to circulate in fairly wide circles, both here and further afield.
On a similar token, most contemporary Japanese, when questioned, apparently still believe that cannabis is the same as heroin...because Douglas MacArthur said so. While the tide may be turning ever so incrementally with the passage of time, it will likely be generations before anything really changes...if it ever does.
For now, the narrow range of pricey CBD products allowed on the market is the best we can hope for.
Alas...I digress.
As for the aforementioned memorial ceremony and lunch, I managed to block out everything. I kept my head down, mouth shut, followed Mina's cues, and made it over the 2pm finish line in fine fettle. The eel lunch was delicious. I even managed two large bottles of Asahi Super Dry in honour of my beer loving late brother-in-law (somewhat of a feat, as I've not been hitting the booze much at all these days).
No one gave me the hairy eyeball...or if they did, I wasn't aware. I sat at the far end of the long table, beside Mina, across from the okasan, and Mayumi's younger son. In addition to the solemn memorial observance, it was the old lady's birthday - and only the second time I've ever seen her drink alcohol. She finished most of one drink - an umeshu (plum liquor) fizz. She was all smiles, and good humour. She loves Mayumi's second son, and seemed pleased to be seated beside him. He's a quiet, good natured sort...much like his late father.
Of course, the rest of the crew were there as well. Surly Sumo Son, Fat Wife, the two boys, and the priest, at the far end of the table, across from Mayumi. Everyone was pretty quiet for the most part. At least no one bothered with me.
The priest droned on a bit at Mayumi. I focussed on the steady stream of eel dishes coming our way. They were all exceptional.
After the final course was finished, everyone gave birthday presents to okasan. She opened them all, received several rounds of applause, and seemed pleased to be the centre of attention.
After everything wrapped, Mayumi's tribe split back to her place, and we took charge of mother. We drove her up to the local specialty supermarket, bought her some expensive fruit tarte pastries and vanilla Haagen-Dazs (in lieu of a proper birthday cake) brought her back, and loaded her in. Soon thereafter, she mentioned that her stomach was feeling a bit sketchy, and she'd be forgoing the fancy desserts we'd bought for her.
Fair enough.
We'd all but given up on the birthday pastries and ice cream; but by early evening her upset stomach appeared to have righted itself, and at nearly 8 pm, she pulled a complete about face and announced that she was ready for her sweets.
This type of thing is fairly typical.
I made some tea and set the table. Mina and I sang a quick round of 'Happy Birthday', and were both surprised at how enthusiastically the old lady devoured everything on hand.
No sooner had the table been cleared than it was evident that she'd had enough....which meant lights out. For everyone.
We retreated to the back bedroom, watched my iPad for a bit, and dozed off
Mission accomplished.
Sunday was typhoon day, and things started looking dodgy just before noon. With cryptic warnings coming fast and furious on Japanese TV, all concerned parties agreed that it would be best to get okasan back to Mayumi's before the real shit started hitting the fan.
We went out and got her a filet-o-fish set from the local McDonald's drive-thru, got her fed, then Mina brought the van around and started loading her stuff in. About ten minutes after they left, shit started getting real. A Biblical piss down. I called Mina on the car inter-phone thing to make sure she was alright, and was surprised to hear that she was already on her way back.
It seems that despite checking, then double and TRIPLE checking that she had everything before they left...the old lady had forgotten the box of dried persimmons she'd received from her favourite grandson for her birthday on the top shelf of our fridge. Ten minutes out, she suddenly realized that she didn't have them in her bags, and made Mina turn around in that hellish end-of-days downpour to come back and get them.
Of course.
Mina showed up the door five minutes later, wind swept and completely drenched. I brought her a fresh shirt, took the wet one, passed her a carry bag containing the box of dried fruit, and off she went, back into the squall. An hour and half later, she was back...safe and sound. What a relief.
As far as okasan's bi-weekly grade goes, I suppose she gets a 'C'... as it was her birthday. Everyone gets a pass on their special day.
Tuesday, September 20th
Post Typhoon Nanmadol, and aside from a lot of leaves and thousands of wee broken tree branches everywhere, things aren't looking too bad. Of course, not everyone was this lucky; but Deadbeat City seems to have a massive horseshoe up its arse as far as these monster typhoons go. It's been a three or four years since since we've taken a proper beating - and even then, it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
When I opened the living room curtains at 5:00 am, the storm seemed to be fizzling out. It's mid-afternoon now, and still pretty windy...four or five degrees cooler than it has been, but still a bit humid. Did my first canal run in three days this morning. This will be a short week, as Friday is another national holiday.
No old lady minding duty; but I do have to go out and teach the Ashtray Face Lady's brawlin' kids on Saturday morning.
She canceled their last class, as it seems there was a death in the family or something. At least that's what Mina assumed from the indirect tone of the phone call. We'll have a busy month in October, with the girl's 13th birthday, and then Halloween. I make a point of recognizing all these events. On their birthdays, I bring them a box of donuts. On Halloween, they get a load of candy. As they get older, it gets harder to find age appropriate stuff. Last Christmas I gave them each ¥1500 prepaid Google Play cards, which seemed to go over well, as they're both on their handsets all the time.
They always give me something for my birthday/Christmas. The last few years they've made some nice choices. Durable utilitarian clothing pieces from a trendy workwear retailer, which I'm pretty sure their mother chooses.
I'm into my eighth year teaching them every second Saturday morning, and their English is still for the birds. On top of that, they're both in their early teens now (12 and 14) - awkward, pubescent, and bored with everything. They're good kids... though they do like to scrap it out. Watching them reminds me of my younger siblings and I. They can get rough with each other; but they're not as violent or over-the-top as we were. Occasionally there are tears and not much studying gets done. The girls is petulant and moody, and her brother detached and 'elsewhere' a lot of the time. He's a big kid for 14, too. At 93kg, he's more than 10kg heavier than me. It's a single parent household, so I'm sure the kids have issues. I grew up in troubled home(s) too...so I can relate.
Even with the storm warnings and updates, Japanese TV seemed to be dominated by coverage of Queen Elizabeth's funeral. I'm sure this is at least partially due to the fact that the Emperor and Empress were in attendance. For the last 10 days it's been inescapable. I guess it should come as no surprise that the BBC, in particular, has really overdone it.
It actually got so unbearable that I had to switch over to CNN...only to find that they were neck deep in it as well.
While I have nothing personal against Elizabeth, I'm not a big fan of the monarchy, the 'ruling classes' or the preservation of archaic, hereditary lines of so-called aristocracy. I grew up in Canada, a Commonwealth of Great Britain. I'm old enough to remember having to sing 'God Save The Queen' alongside 'Oh, Canada' at school assemblies in the early - mid 70's. I lived in British Columbia...arguably the most 'English' part of the country. The Union Jack took up the top half of our provincial flag. Of course, the Queen is on all of our money.
My great grandmother emigrated to B.C. from the little township of Eye, in Suffolk, England at the turn of the last century. Sick of her station in life (she worked as a seamstress for the wealthy), she answered an ad, got herself a mail-order Scandinavian husband, packed her bags, and traveled across the globe to take advantage of an offer the Crown had made to grant parcels of unceded (read: stolen) First Nation's land to Brits (excluding single women) willing to make the trip over to British Columbia.
In those days, the idea of being a landowner conjured up all sorts of images of 'the good life'. Lords and ladies presiding over country estates. The finer things in life. Perhaps she imagined taking 'high tea' while low paid coolies ran around doing all the nasty jobs?
By all accounts, she got more than she bargained for...and wished that she'd just sucked it up and stayed back in England stitching doilies. It was a hard life.
Anyone who possess even a passive knowledge of history will be aware that, with its centuries long legacy of theft, murder and subjugation, the United Kingdom has been perhaps the greatest criminal enterprise the world has ever known. It would be absurd to claim that the monarchy somehow exists on a separate plane, and is in any way innocent of the nation's transgressions.
Sadly, were it not for Great Britain's thieving and criminality, I wouldn't be here. Whether I like it or not, it's part of who I am.
It's certainly no source of pride.
I watch all these people, in the UK and further afield - even in Japan - blubbering on about how much she meant to them, or what she's done for them. Of course, there are no specifics. Standing in line for up to 24 hours to file past what is likely a flag draped empty box...for what? It's insanity. It's on par with the North Korean 'Mass Games' for embarrassing displays of blind fealty to a perceived 'elite class'.
Perhaps it's something that people needed, particularly after COVID? Some kind of cathartic release that they could all share in, en masse. I've never seen so many people spout off so much nonsense, and make such utter arses of themselves as I have in the last week and a bit. Going on about her 'service', and what she meant to them.
For fucksakes.
It's no wonder Great Gramma left England behind.
I find it curious that in the wake of Princess Diana's death almost exactly a quarter century ago, the very same Queen and royal family who were being held to account (and almost universally reviled) are now apparently beyond reproach. It's almost as if it none of it ever happened. Not to mention that loathsome criminal nonce, Prince Andrew, back in the public eye, traipsing along behind the old lady's casket less than a year after further shaming and embarrassing the entire corrupt institution. Now, they're ALL heroes. Hip-hip-hooray.
It's enough to make any decent person want to puke.
People are so fucking fickle.
On that note, I'm gonna roll up the carpet and flip over the shingle for another two weeks or so.
It now seems that yet another typhoon is speeding toward this general vicinity. This one, ostensibly #15, hasn't been named yet, and isn't packing quite the Category 5 wallop of Nanmadol, but it's aimed almost directly for us. With all the recent talk of horseshoes up arses and dodging bullets, this could be our comeuppance. I suppose this rotten town is due for a shit kicking.
On the menu for tomorrow through Sunday? Rain and wind. Rain and wind, giving way to cloud cover, and possible sunshine. More clouds, wind...and then more rain. Another dose of tropical humidity, as well...though the basic temperature will be slightly lower than last week. High twenties. Wet, sticky, sweaty.
Loveliness.
At the height of all this blustery horseshit, I have to go and entertain the aforementioned scrappin' tweens over at Ashtrayface Lady's danchii. The good news is, Mina will be able to drive. The last time I was in this quandary on a typhoon day, I had to ride my bike over there, and almost got blown into oncoming traffic.
On a positive note, we'll have a chance to watch a few movies on the fancy new TV system. There's a backlog of things we've been meaning to see; but simply no time for much more than the news or some shit Japanese variety program during dinner. If we don't get around to it this weekend, we'll have to wait until the beginning of October. Needless to say, there's no time for any leisure viewing when the old lady's around...unless it's on a tablet, or at my computer table.
So, until next we meet, you'd do well to remember that...
"No matter where you go, there you are".
There, and nowhere else.
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