Wherever We Go, There They Are

One of the nice things about living here in Ogaki is our relative location. We can get on the train at Ogaki Station and by heading East for 30 minutes be in Nagoya, Japan's third largest metropolitan area; or we can head West for 30 minutes and be in the deep recesses of the Japanese Alps. Last weekend we headed West, through the mountains, on our journey to Osaka. Recently it has been quite cold here in Ogaki and we've had some snow, but mostly we've been watching the mountains get dumped on from our balcony like in this picture.

Now, either I was really paranoid (refer to our adventure in Kyoto in Japan Today Newsletter 12/6/2007) or else I underestimated the efficiency of trains in Japan, but as we traveled through the mountains I was sure the trains were going to be stopped by the heavy snow. As we passed through the small mountain communities that actually had train stations, the snow reached the train windows, meaning it was almost three feet deep on the platform and the opposite tracks were completely covered. The conductor even stopped opening the doors at our stops unless someone wanted off or on because it was too cold to keep the doors open. As the train continued to wind its way through this winter wonderland we saw countless buried rice fields making patterns in the snow as seen in this picture taken from the train.

After making it through the mountains, we continued on to sunny Osaka where we stayed with the Miura Family. The Miuras are special to us because the last time we were in Osaka I was friends with Naomi, a wonderful woman who has spent a lot of time in Los Angeles and wanted to get married but was fed up with Japanese men; and Tyler was friends with Tsuyoshi, a man who had also spent a lot of time traveling outside Japan and wanted to marry a woman who didn't necessarily think the way Japanese women do. Well, as it turns out, we all ended up attending the same church (Tyler invited Tsuyoshi to attend after meeting him on the street) and Naomi and Tsuyoshi were married a few months before us. They now have an adorable 1 year old daughter. On Sunday, we were all able to go to the church where we met together and it was exciting to see how many of the church members remembered us and how warmly we were once again welcomed.

Although Tyler and I have been back to Osaka together before, this was the first time that we gave ourselves time to freely explore together. When we lived there before we had both loved walking by a certain moat that surrounded a kofun near a beautiful park in Sakai. We had never been there together so we set off to find it. Locating the path was a little tricky since neither of us could remember exactly where it was. It took our combined memories (Tyler knew it was across the tracks and I knew it was further west) to find it. It was fun knowing that neither of us would have found it without the help of the other.

We also went to my school, Kenmei Gakuin, to see my host sister graduate. It was fun to see the school that I attended as an exchange student, but sad to realize that none of my friends were there anymore. Most of the teachers that I had known were also either on leave, abroad, retired, or had quit. I was not completely without acquaintances, however, as my first friend at the school, Hiroko, had come with us to the graduation. After touring the school together we went out for some Okonomiyaki and I was happy knowing that even though my days at Kenmei were over, the relationships with my friends were not. This was made even more apparent to me that evening as we went over to my first (I had three total) host family's home for takoyaki and kitsune udon. My host mother hugged me and nearly cried herself into hysterics and we talked and laughed the evening away with my Japanese sisters over their new jobs, entering university and their desire for rich boyfriends.

The warm feelings that our Japanese families and friends left stayed with us all the way home and carried us through the snowy mountains back to Ogaki. After arriving back in the city we currently call home, we stopped by a friend's house for a quick chat about their weekend and to discuss getting together later in the week. After laughing and talking with them for the better part of an hour we finally headed back to our apartment. As we biked through the frosty night, Tyler and I mused about all the wonderful people we had encountered throughout the weekend and felt blessed to have so many friends throughout this tiny island.