July 28th, 2008: Playtime with Peace

The children at the elementary school were well behaved. The elementary school, built within a valley like most of Odawara’s city outskirted buildings, was hidden behind a throng of trees and bamboo.

I was the third to arrive and when Chris and Haruka entered, we introduced ourselves in Japanese to a roomful of 8-year-olds. They, in turn, introduced themselves, and soon, we were set free to play with them. Kelsey and I taught them new games and Jason and Chris randomly joined small groups of children who didn’t mind sharing their toys or magazines with us foreigners.

Shoko-san came, and I greeted her with a hug, forgetting that in Japan, people usually bowed. She was somewhat of an assistant to the OIFA, and she invited Jason and I to pick up lunch at a small market place. We returned shortly with tempura for Chris, a limited fish dish for Kelsey, pork cutlings and rice for Jason, onigiri and rice for Haruka, and onigiri and pork katsu for myself. We ate with the children, their small black eyes following our movements as we spoke in English amongst ourselves.

I asked Chris if he wanted any onigiri, and I ate half of the rice-seaweed food before I handed it to Chris, expecting him to be the human disposal and eat the rest of it.

“I can’t finish this,” he said sheepishly, handing it back to me after two bites. I ate the rest, and snickered along. Kelsey raised an eyebrow in my direction.

“Chris ate some,” I begun, “and then I ate the rest, so this should be an indirect kiss.” Kelsey just shook her head and Chris turned a different color.

“Love-love,” Kelsey called out, and we all laughed. In Japan, the equivalent of “lovey-dovey” is “love-love”.

We watched the children put away their belongings and pull out their bags filled with swimgear. The teacher told us to swim after 1 PM, so it gave us half an hour to do whatever we wanted. We ended up taking pictures of each other and randomly did the Macarena and other dances to fill in the gap before the teacher showed us to the pool. It was a big pool that only went 3 feet the entire length. The size made Chris and I change and dive into the sea of children and water.

We played for more than an hour, giving kids piggy back rides, splashing each other and talking to the excited children who wanted to know our names, ages, and if we were tired. Chris and I left the pool once we became fatigued, and we returned to the room to find Haruka asleep on the tatami floor and Kelsey drawing as Jason welcomed our return.

We changed quickly and proceeded to lie around while we waited for the 2 o’clock hour to free us from our volunteer duties. The teacher put out teacups and saucers, announcing “tea time” and we sat down to cold popsicles, wheat tea, and cookies. Jason, Chris, and I began to talk about dancing, and soon, Jason and I gave a demonstration on the Cho-chonin dance we learned two nights before.

As we cleaned up the plates and cups, our host families arrived to pick us up. It was 3 PM. I imparted a few See’s Candies lollipops a keychain to the teacher, bowing many times to show her how grateful we were to have them host us.

“Konnichiwa, Papa-san!” I called out to Eriko’s father, joining him and Haruka’s sister in the parking lot. They laughed, then bade us goodbye before we set out our different ways. Papa-san and I rode in silence, until he slowed the small van’s speed to a crawl.

“Those are where green tea come from,” he said carefully, pointing at a neat row of green bushes near the road. I nodded and we went home. Mama-san was already home when we arrived. She showed me how to work the laundry machine before I went to my room and finished writing. She called me down when the load was finished.

In Japan, people don’t use dryers as much as Americans do. They hang up their clothes on lines, hangers, and clothing pins to dry their laundry. It was a drawling system, but it still got the job done, no matter how long it took to dry. I realized sadly that my sleepwear would not be dry by that night.

I returned downstairs to show my host parents my photos taken during the volunteer event earlier. We laughed at the pictures with Chris, Jason, Haruka, and I lying on the tatami mat. Soon, the three of us were having a good time, talking about my mother, discovering new vocabulary in the English and Japanese language, and sharing information about our families.

Finally, around 6:30 PM, Papa-san stood up. “Jd, let’s go to the station,” he said, and I followed him outside, walking past houses and shops that held the lowering sun’s rays. I talked about the events at the school, and before I knew it, Eriko came up to us, smiling. I recounted the details of the day’s activities again, and in arriving home, we ate dinner.

I liked when we ate together. Papa-san and Mama-san are like teenagers, and they joke each other in between bouts of English and Japanese translations. We laughed a lot.