第十八章

11 March 2011 13:25

I came back from my lunch break five minutes before the time Kinoshita-sensei said we should return by, as I was so excited about our afternoon adventure. It must be something about the way I learn but I always retain much more in practical lessons than I do from reading a book.

Haruka and I spent most of the time after lunch walking around the school grounds again chatting about everything and anything. I was glad that she did not pick up our earlier conversation and ask me about my future. I am not sure why but despite being a fairly confident girl, I always get unnecessarily worried when thinking and talking about what I want to do when I grow up. I suppose I just haven’t found anything that I am particularly passionate about yet.

Around half of the other students had also returned early and over the next five minutes the remainder of my classmates got back just before Kinoshita-sensei slid open the door at the front of the classroom and walked in.

‘Good to see that you all got back on time,’ he said. ‘Whilst you were outside playing, I have been on the telephone to the port manager to check that everything is still in order for our visit there this afternoon and I am pleased to say that it is. For those of you who have just come back in, please leave your coats, scarves and hats on. For those who got back early, please get ready to head outside again.’

A few of us, including me, went to the pegs at the back of the classroom to gather together and put on our warm outdoor clothing.

‘Now, we are going to be walking to the port as it’s not far from here,’ Kinoshita-sensei said. ‘So in a moment, I want you to make your way down to the front of the school and wait outside the main entrance. But do not go beyond the school gates. If you need to, make sure that you go to the toilet before we leave. I need to pop into the staffroom on my way so will meet you there shortly.’

As the students started to move out of the classroom and down the stairs there was a sense of anticipation in the air. Haruka and I ended up getting pushed towards the back as others were keener to get outside first. At the genkan, I changed into my outdoor shoes, this time taking a little more care to undo the laces before slipping my feet inside, and walked out of the open doors to wait where Kinoshita-sensei had asked us to stand.

Within a couple of minutes, Kinoshita-sensei emerged from the entrance along with Miyamoto-sensei who was the school’s Kyōto-sensei or deputy head.

‘You will see that Kyōto-sensei has kindly agreed to accompany us on our trip.’

Without being asked, we all bowed towards Kyōto-sensei and said yoroshiku onegaishimasu to thank him for coming along. I caught a look of pride on Kinoshita-sensei’s face who was pleased with this act as he spent a lot of time talking with us about the importance of good manners.

‘OK class, follow me,’ Kinoshita-sensei said, striding off through the school gate.

We left the school and fell into pairs, Haruka and I walking next to each other, of course. Turning right, we walked down the gentle slope past the local chemists and a family restaurant, making our way towards Route 230.

‘Please pay attention here as this is a busy road and although we’ll be using the crossing, it’s important to use your eyes and ears to look, and listen, out for cars,’ Kinoshita-sensei warned.

We crossed the road and continued north for a while along the pavement on the other side of the road. 

‘Do any of you know,’ Kyōto-sensei shouted from the back of the group, ‘why there are so many warehouses around this part of Ōfunato?’

‘Is it to do with the port, Kyoto-sensei?’ Hiroshi offered as an answer.

‘Yes, it is, Hiroshi-kun,’ Kyōto-sensei said. ‘Can you think why?’

‘I suppose that because of all the goods leaving Japan from the port, there is sometimes a need to store things before they can be loaded onto the ships,’ Hiroshi added.

‘Good answer. It actually works both ways, though. Not only do goods leave Japan to be sold abroad but the port also receives ships that are loaded with products from other countries for sale in Japan,’ Kyōto-sensei said giving a fuller explanation. ‘In most cases, these are loaded directly onto lorries to be driven to their next destination but sometimes they need to be stored for a while, repackaged or processed before moving on.’

We then turned right into a wide road and I could see a couple of the big cranes that were used to lift containers onto and off the ships. These were not like the cranes that I had seen before and which I thought looked like red and white stripy giraffes but more like giant green fortresses into which ships sailed. There were far more machines and vehicles than people around here and it felt a little dangerous to be walking around, although we were not on the actual road. We then took a left turn at another large building that was painted red and had “Hamanasu Foods” written along the side in large white katakana phonetic characters. After a short while more, we arrived at the port office.

‘I am going to go inside and let the port manager know that we are here,’ Kinoshita-sensei said. ‘Please wait outside with Kyoto-sensei.’

Although Kinoshita-sensei had not gone for long, a few of my classmates, mainly boys, were becoming impatient wanting to get closer to the water and so went off exploring when they should have been standing with the rest of us. However, a few short, sharp, words from our deputy head pulled them back into line.

Kinoshita-sensei emerged from the port office and walked towards us accompanied by a fairly short man who was wearing large square glasses and a suit with a fluorescent yellow vest over the top of the jacket.

‘Class 4-A, I would like to introduce you to Ohara-san who is the port manager and has overall responsibility for making sure that everything here runs smoothly.’

Ohara-san bowed to us all with a nod of his head and we all bowed back more deeply to show respect.

‘Welcome to Ōfunato port,’ he said. ‘I am very happy to have you here today and hope that you are going to learn a lot about this important part of our local economy.’

As he got a little closer, I could see that his neck-tie had cute little Doraemon cartoon characters on it and I wondered if he had children who had bought this for him.

‘You will have already seen lots of large buildings around here and I expect lots of traffic on your walk down from school,’ Ohara-san said. ‘It can be dangerous which is why I am wearing this vest and I have arranged for each of you to wear something similar so that you can easily be seen.’

Kinoshita-sensei opened up a cardboard box and began to pull out orange vests from inside.

‘Please go to your teacher who will give you a vest to wear whilst you are visiting today,’ Ohara-san said as he motioned towards Kinoshita-sensei.

We all walked across to get our safety gear and began to put on our vests while Ohara-san asked some questions about the port.

‘Who can tell me,’ he began, ‘what types of products you think come through this port?’

‘Machinery?’ Kaito suggested.

‘Yes, that’s right,’ Ohara-san said. ‘How did you know that young man?’

To answer, Kaito pointed at a lorry that was driving past the port office that had “Nippon-Ichi Machinery” written on the side. ‘I saw that lorry on the way in,’ he said, raising a few laughs from classmates.

‘Very observant!’ exclaimed Ohara-san who also could only laugh at this slightly cheeky but resourceful response. ‘What else do you think goes through this port?’

‘I know that my dad sells lots of the saury fish that he catches to companies that freeze and then send the fish to places like Korea,’ Haruka said.

‘We do have a very clever class here,’ Ohara-san said nodding his head in genuine appreciation. ‘Yes, that’s right. Fish, and in particular Pacific saury, is one of the main products that we export from this part of Japan. Not just to Korea, lots of the fish is sold in Russia as well.’

All of us had put on our vests by now and Ohara-san decided that it was time to begin the tour.

‘Well, now that you are all ready, let’s start,’ he said. ‘We are going to walk from here down to the dock where we are expecting a ship to be arriving in about thirty minutes.’

Walking in pairs again in a long line, we followed Ohara-san around the side of the port office and along a road that led down to the water. The area around the docks was much more open than the streets lined with warehouses that we had experienced for most of our way here and I could see very clearly the water of the bay and the mountains that rose into the sky on the other side. It was surprisingly quiet, although I expected that this would change once the next ship arrived. Ohara-san brought us to an area that was just in front of the giant green cranes that I had first seen from further back. 

Ohara-san spoke into his walkie-talkie to check the progress of the next ship coming into port and then turned to us.

‘Everything is on track,’ he said peering out over the water. ‘If you look across the bay, the ship they we are expecting should come into view very soon once it has passed the Osaki Cape, that large piece of land jutting out in the distance.’

Almost as soon as he said this, a ship became visible as it turned around the cape and made its way up the bay. This was really exciting and I couldn’t wait to see the ship close up.

‘The cargo ship that you can now all see is called “Hakudo Maru” after the celestial being, Hakudo, who, it is said, came to earth five thousand years ago to teach humans how to build boats,’ Ohara-san explained. ‘Most sea vessels have maru in their name as the kanji symbol for circle is supposed to bring protection.’‘My dad’s fishing boat is called “Akatsuki Maru” as he says that he spends so much of his life awake in the moonlight before sunrise it seemed an appropriate name,’ Haruka said, leaning towards me.

The next ten minutes passed quickly and we watched with anticipation. As the Hakudo Maru got closer and closer, I began to appreciate what was a huge ship it was. The first thing that occurred to me was that it looked like something that you could make out of Lego bricks, especially the colourful containers that were piled on top of each other. I also thought these would make it difficult for the captain to see where the ship was going. When I realised that each of those Lego brick containers was big enough to be loaded onto the back of a lorry’s trailer the scale blew me away and I felt very small indeed.

‘The ship will move into the channel between the two legs of the crane’s supporting body so that we can lift directly from above,’ Ohara-san said. ‘Our computer tell us which containers need to be removed at this port and which need to stay on board for the ship’s next stop which is Tomakomai Port in Hokkaido.’

Across the sky, the clouds had thickened and were turning grey, blocking out the sun that I had enjoyed shining on my face earlier that morning. 

It suddenly went eerily quiet and all I could hear were the squawking cries of some seagulls circling the bay on the lookout for food.

***

…at last…

…freedom!

***

Can’t wait to find out what happens next?

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