Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Japan Story

Hyama

The Westerners in Yokohama in the thirties used to go to the mountains or the sea to escape the heat.  The women and children stayed for the summer. The men would swelter from Monday to Friday, and rejoin their families on weekends.  

The summer I turned four we went to a seaside resort called Hyama.  I do not remember the cottage we stayed in except that it was right on the beach set under a grove of pine trees.  What I do remember is the beach.  My mother and I would go walking together on the sand. We played a game, "Cowrie".  The beach was a treasure trove of large, beautiful  cowrie shells and when my mother or I spotted one we would sing out,

"I found a cowrie!"

The collection grew.  I would count them when we got back to the cottage and regarded them as great wealth.  I do not know how many there were but it must have been thirty or forty.   They are long gone. Cowries were actually used as money at one time. 

We also went on shorter excursions.  I remember Kamakura, also by the sea.  I remember going inside the great budda climbing up to his head and looking out.  You cannot do that today.  There was also a hotel there where my parents would have tea, leaving me to play on the swings outside on the sand.  They were very tall swings, and I would flop onto the seat, head down, and walk around in a circle to twist the ropes.  Then, feet off the ground, I would whirl round and round getting gloriously dizzy.

Another favorite day trip was Hakone.  The last part was steep and there was a little cog railway that took us up to the hotel where the mynah bird greeted us. It is a tourist destination to this day.  Near there was a shop where I  painted a picture with glaze on an unfired china dish. They fired it  for me and I took home a wonderful souvenier of my art. Also long gone.

Near there was also a hotel at Myanoshta that I have mentioned where the mynah bird greeted us in Japanese.  Adjacent was a souvenier shop where we bought a set of nested wooden dolls.  I called them my Bundle Family and played happily with them on the wicker train seat all the way home.