WHEN EAST MEETS WEST !
Commentary By Hank F. Miller Jr.
\”A Journey Through The Island Of Kyushu\”
We left our home on a trip to Mount Aso in Kumamoto, Prefecture at about a three hour drive by car it was 10:00 am.when we left home on a bright sunny morning in June and the children had just got out of school for their summer vacation.
When we neared Mount Aso we noticed that the moon had already risen and was hanging,very white,in an empty blue sky.
It was only about one thirty in the aftrnoon,We could see a tiny cloud of smoke that showed,in the distance,where
Mount Aso stood.
Schoolchildren were sitting along the sides of the road near Oguni Town,drawing pictures of the rice fields which they tried to hide as we passed. Further on,higher, brown cows were lazily eating grass,looking up at the moon and wondering where evening was.
Higher still there were no schoolchildren and no cows.
The grass was the greenest I had ever seen in Japan and,as the road climbed steeply upwards,it turned greener.Behind us,like a painting,the grey-brown shape of Mount Kuju rose into the sky and the sun touched it,turning it orange,then gold.
We decided to stop and stretch our legs for a while,and while there we took a few photographs and ate some sandwhiches my wife Keiko had prepared before leaving home.
We started out again,by about two thirty we were standing on the rim of the greatest crater on earth staring down into the flat round valley big enough to contain three towns,at the walls of the crater,like landscapes of the moon,and a Mount Aso itself and the purple volcanoes beyond it to the east,we
could smell the selfer that rose in a small cloud of smoke from the crater.
We walked down into the valley,wanting it to cry once more with the little streams of steam comming out from the hot springs themselves.
June was more than half over and the hot spring town in the crater was quiet.the sun had gone down behind the rim of the crater and a long shadow was creeping up the main street.With it came the evening wind.
Many of the hotels were open for business as usual as were the pensions which the Japanese call ,but in the West they are known as lodges.We had made a booking a month before at the pension called \”The Cream House.\” When we arrived and entered we were met at the door by the owner.The only sound heard was of a huge color television set hanging on the wall in the living room that had been on since morning with no one watching.
We checked in and were shown our rooms,putting our bags there we went down to the living room and made our aquaintance with the proprietor and his wife and son.
\’what\’s the English for gemu? asked Manabu,the eleven-year-old son of the pension owner.Later we all decided to go and take a hot springbath togther.While there sitting in the small hot spring bath together,Manabu had joined us and began to ask me to teach him some English.He had a small notebook and pencil with him and was managing to write in the nootbook without getting it wet.That was very clever.I thought.He was a very clever boy.
\’What\’s the English for gemu?\’\’Game,\’I told him.He wrote it down.\’What\’s the English for ka?\’\’Car.\’\’What\’s the English for kamera?\’\’Camera.\’\’What\’s the English for \’pitcher.\’He wrote it down.\’They\’re the same! he cried happily.
The evening had turned cool after the sun went down.
so we walked through the streets of the near by town of Takamuri,we were in our Japanese summer Komono\’s and a pair of the wooden klogs called geta.The geta made a sharp noise as we walked through the half empty streets and the noise made the streets seem even emptier.
We returned back to the pensiom about ten after eating dinner at a small traditional Japanese restaurant.We went to our rooms
and went to sleep for the night.
On the next morning we awoke early at about 07:00 a.m.had a great western style breakfast,leaving the pension at about 09\”00 am.
We went horsback riding near by for anout 2 hours,after that headed back home to Kitakyushu,City.
\”After our first trip to Mount Aso,our family continued to visit The Cream House each year for the next 10 years and the owner and his family became very good friends of ours,\’
It\’s like a second home for us up there on that mountain.
A Journey Through The Island Of Kyushu (To Be continued:)
Warm Regards From Kitakyushu City ,Japan