第二十章

11 March 2011 14:46

It all started with a bang like something large, hard and heavy falling over at an indistinguishable point far off in the distance. I had heard this sound before and knew immediately what was to follow.

Everything around me started shaking, the screaming began. I could see the cranes that were just in front of us swaying from side to side and could hear the metal cables as they slapped against the cranes’ arms. I was expecting this to end almost as soon as it started just like many of the earthquakes I had experienced before but it carried on. The floor that we were standing on had also started to move, so much so that a few of my classmates lost their balance and fell over. By this time, the teachers had gathered their senses and started to direct us.

Jishin da! ‘It’s an earthquake! Move away from the building as quickly as you can and stand towards the centre of the port where there is nothing around you,’ Kinoshita-sensei shouted with understandable urgency.

Kyōto-sensei held his arms out wide as if to literally gather us up and move us away from the building behind us and towards relative safety. Those who had fallen over were quickly on their feet and as a class we ran towards the open space. I looked behind me and saw that Hiroshi had banged his head when he fell and was being tended to by Ohara-san who held his hand towel to the wound to try to stop the bleeding.

That was when the movement caused by the earthquake changed; rather than shaking from side to side, the earth started to move up and down, and I knew that this was a big one. Watching Hiroshi and Ohara-san from a distance, I wished that they would just get up and move away from the building that was now starting to lose parts of its roof. Great sheets of corrugated iron slid off and glided ungracefully to the ground where they made a clattering sound on impact twisting and buckling into irregular shapes.

‘Hiroshi-kun! Ohara-san! You have to move! The roof is starting to fall down and you might get hit!’ Kyōto-sensei shouted towards them with hands cupped around his mouth to make sure that they heard him.

I saw Hiroshi slowly get to his feet and, supported by Ohara-san, he started to walk towards us very slowly as the fall and bang to his head made him move like a punch-drunk boxer. 

Abunai! ‘Watch out!’ Natsumi shouted as she saw that from above, some more sections of the roof had begun to shake loose.

As Ohara-san turned around, the heavy sheets landed on top of them and I saw him hold up an arm in an attempt to soften some of the blow and protect Hiroshi. The two of them disappeared under the metal. The screaming continued and Kinoshita-sensei rushed forward to help.

‘Are you hurt?’ he asked as he reached where the two lay. ‘Somebody give me a hand to lift these off them.’

Kyōto-sensei sprinted towards where Kinoshita-sensei was now standing and between them they began heaving the roof sections off the two bodies lying on the ground. I saw some blood near Hiroshi and turned away in shock hoping that this was a dream. Even though I was not watching I could still hear everything that was going on and was also aware that the shaking had not stopped as a warehouse that I was now looking at caved in on one side and then collapsed onto the floor like an animal that had been shot with a tranquiliser dart, falling first onto its forelegs before finally rolling over and hitting the ground.

‘Hiroshi. Can you hear me?’ Kinoshita-sensei asked. ‘Hiroshi. Are you OK? Please say something.’

I turned back and saw Kinoshita-sensei kneeling by Hiroshi shaking him gently to try to get him to acknowledge and answer the question. Hiroshi did not move and the blood around his head was now pooling. I was sick all over the concrete in front of me and despite the situation noticed that there was still some undigested gobō in it.

‘Call an ambulance!’ Kinoshita-sensei shouted towards Ohara-san, who was starting to get to his feet.

Around us buildings were now falling freely and crash after crash was followed by clouds of dust billowing into the air. The screams continued and so did the earthquake.

There was a jolt and a huge section of the concrete close to where we were standing rose up out of the ground at one end and sunk into the ground at the other. Cracks had begun to appear even closer to us, something that was noticed by Ohara-san.

‘Get away from the port’s edge! It’s too dangerous!’ he shouted whilst unclipping his walkie-talkie from the point where his high-visibility vest joined in the centre of his chest.

‘Port control. This is Ohara. Over.’

‘Port control. Go ahead. Over.’

‘We need medical assistance. Student has hit his head and bleeding badly. Over.’

‘Will call for ambulance. Over.’

There was a brief pause.

‘The phone-lines are dead. No signal on mobile phone either. Over.’

‘Any first-aiders on site? Over.’ 

‘Yes. Am sending now. Over.’ 

‘Thank you. Out,’ Ohara-san terminated the conversation.

As we moved in a panic away from the cracking concrete, we got too close to another warehouse that was still shaking from the earthquake that had started just over a minute ago. This warehouse, too, couldn’t stand the battering and fell to the ground but in the opposite direction to where we were gathered.

‘Get away from the buildings!’ Kumi said and we all moved once more to the middle of the road.

The earthquake had finally stopped but in just a couple of minutes, the damage was plain to see. Numerous warehouses and other port buildings had either completely or partially collapsed. The port’s concourse looked like a poorly laid pavement with whole sections sticking up in the same manner as the one I had seen as it happened. The siren and flashing lights from a port authority car drove past us and towards where Kinoshita-sensei was desperately trying to stop the bleeding.

‘Haruka, are you OK?’ I asked, turning towards my friend.‘Yes, I’m alright,’ she said and ran over to hug me. Kowakatta! ‘That was so scary! I’ve never known such a big earthquake.’

‘Yes, it really was frightening,’ I agreed as thoughts of Okāsan suddenly entered my mind and I hoped that she was safe. ‘I didn’t think it would stop.’

Kyōto-sensei ran towards us and told us to stay close together and not to move. He also said that there was a very high chance of aftershocks. I wanted to know what was happening with Hiroshi and tried to see what the first-aiders were doing. I felt sick again when I saw Kinoshita-sensei holding Hiroshi in his arms.

‘Noooooooooo!’ our teacher cried, cutting through the silence that had followed the earthquake’s end.

‘What’s happened?’ Haruka asked.

‘I don’t know for sure, but I think that Hiroshi is dead,’ I replied, surprising myself with the lack of emotion in my voice.

She put her hands to her face and drew in breath before standing there in that same pose looking towards Hiroshi whose lifeless body was still being cradled by Kinoshita-sensei.

‘Really?’ Haruka said in disbelief. ‘Are you sure? He can’t be dead. He can’t be!’

Kyoto-sensei, heard Haruka and walked over to hold her as she started to shake and sob. This shocked me into realising what had happened and I slumped to the floor tears rolling down my face. All around us, as the news spread, people reacted either by expressing their feelings through shouting and crying or by falling silent and staring at nothing in particular as their brains struggled to process the unimaginable horror.

Japan had been placed on a giant vibrating plate and had been shaken to within an inch of its life.

Then came the voice over the public loudspeaker:

This is a tsunami warning announcement.

Please move to higher ground immediately.

This is a tsunami warning announcement.

Please move to higher ground immediately.

***

Shoichi sat in the music room at Ōfunato Elementary School. The practice had started earlier than usual as the wind orchestra in which he played was going to be performing at the school’s graduation ceremony later that month. The music teacher, Sugiyo-sensei had chosen the Ōfunato town song “Yesterday” by The Beatles as it was a song that all the students would be familiar with as it played every day at five o’clock in the afternoon as a reminder to children in the area that they should return home if out playing with friends.

For the past fifteen minutes, the practice session had been going well although the timing of the percussion section was off and Sugiyo-sensei was spending some time with them making sure that they played at exactly the right point and to exactly the right rhythm.

‘You need to be careful with your timing,’ he said. ‘At this point, the high hat cymbal comes in slightly louder than earlier in the piece so you need to make sure that you get that entry just right. The rhythm is ta ta-ta ta ta-ta ta ta-ta. I’ll count you in.’

Just as Sugiyo-sensei raised his conducting baton, there was a bang at the back of the music room and the bookshelf that held all the sheet music toppled forwards, scattering paper towards where they sat. It took the students a little while to realise what had happened but once the panes of glass started rattling and the doors started banging in their frames, they went into autopilot following the earthquake drills that they had run through on numerous occasions.

‘Earthquake!’ shouted Sugiyo-sensei. ‘Get across the room and under the tables!’

Shoichi still had the presence of mind to gently lay down his clarinet on the floor before sprinting across the room and sliding under one of the tables next to a couple of the other band members. He held onto one of the metal legs as they had been taught; if this turned out to be a strong quake the table may start to jump around. The familiar sensation of rocking from side to side began and the noise of rattling windows and of doors grew louder and more violent sounding. All of a sudden, a pane of glass fell out of one of the internal windows and shattered on the music room’s parquet flooring sending dangerous shards of glass skidding towards where they sheltered. A large and jagged piece slid into the knee of Fumi-chan, an oboe player, and it started to bleed although not profusely. Shoichi pulled a handkerchief out of his trouser pocket and offered it to her without saying a word. Fumi-chan had closed her eyes with both pain and fright although was not in shock and therefore used the cotton material to place under her wound as she knelt.

The sounds of panic – people shouting and screaming – came from outside as some of the students who were on the ground floor had exited and run across the baseball ground to assemble away from the school building. A large industrial crumbling noise of glass, concrete and steel, like that from a planned demolition, indicated that one of the nearby buildings had already succumbed to the power of these seismic waves that after the event would be calculated to have contained enough energy to power Los Angeles for an entire year.

The wheels on the bottom of the piano had not been locked and the relentless multilateral vibrations caused it to jump and roll across the smooth floor, ploughing through music stands and instruments until it finally tipped and fell with a discordant crash just by the doorway which had been left open by Sugiyo-sensei who had the forethought to ensure that their escape route would not be blocked if the frame twisted with the door still in it.

Shoichi had never before experienced an earthquake that had lasted so long and with each second that it continued the propensity for destruction increased as structural engineers’ calculations were tested to the very limits of their mathematical assumptions. Looking out from under the table the music room had been completed ransacked by nature. His careful laying down of the well-loved and well-used clarinet bought by his mother once he had passed Grade Four with one borrowed from the school seemed almost comical as it, together with most of the other instruments, had been bumped, banged and crushed.

More panes of glass, both internal and external, had been shaken from their frames although fortunately none had shattered in the same way as the first. Fumi-chan had been unlucky. After what he later found out to be two minutes but which had felt like ten, the earthquake stopped and silence temporarily swept over the room.

‘Is everybody OK? We must get outside as there could be aftershocks,’ Sugiyo-sensei said, surveying the room for injured students. ‘Move quickly but please do not rush for the exit as there is a lot of debris in the way.’

Despite his words, there was an understandable element of panic as the orchestra members picked themselves up off the floor and headed towards the door climbing over furniture, books, instruments and finally the fallen piano before reaching the corridor. Shoichi descended the stairs as quickly as he could considering that he was supporting Fumi-chan who was limping on account of her earlier injury. Halfway down, one of the aftershocks arrived as Sugiyo-sensei has forewarned they might and this served to heighten the panic and resolve of students fleeing from what could be a death-trap to the safety of the sports ground. Shoes squeaked on the polished vinyl floors as students rushed toward the main entrance to the school and outside to collapse on the floor in exhaustion.

Looking at the number of children around him, Shoichi felt that most of the students must have escaped the building unharmed. The teachers came out last having inspected the areas of the school assigned to them under the evacuation plan.

‘Please arrange yourselves into year groups,’ said Hashimoto-sensei, the head teacher of Ōfunato Elementary, through a hand-held loudspeaker. ‘Your homeroom teachers will be taking register to ensure that everybody got out safely. We will start with year six to my right and then move across as we go down through the year groups to year one on my far left by the pitcher’s mound.’

Shoichi was relieved to see that aside from Fumi-chan, none of the other students was obviously hurt and having helped her to where the fifth grade were gathered, made his way to where his classmates were standing. On his way there, he overheard a second year teacher, who was just completing her third term fully qualified, talking with the school nurse about class 4-A who had gone down to the port that afternoon on a field trip.

‘I hope that they are safe,’ Yoshida-sensei said. ‘There are so many large buildings out that way and you only need to look around here to see that many have fallen down.’ 

As she spoke another nearby dwelling creaked as the wooden structure, designed to wax and wane with earthquakes, finally gave way and collapsed in on itself.

As Shoichi recognised 4-A as Haruka’s class, the blood drained from his face. The words from the public address system caused a black veil to descend over his eyes as he became dizzy, lost balance and then consciousness.

This is a tsunami warning announcement.

Please move to higher ground immediately.

This is a tsunami warning announcement.

Please move to higher ground immediately.

***

Can’t wait to find out what happens next?

Washing Over Me is available as a download for Kindle or as a printed paperback, both from Amazon:

Kindle Version – Amazon UK
Paperback – Amazon UK
Kindle Version – Amazon US
Paperback – Amazon US

Or search for “Washing Over Me Benjamin Brook” from your country’s Amazon homepage.

第十九章

25 August 2075

‘Do you know Kimiko?’ Shoichi said, ‘I had a really strange dream while I slept that night in the hut at the eighth station. I don’t believe that I ever shared it with you but now seems like as good a time as any.’

We awoke as planned and headed to the summit for sunrise. All was going well when suddenly there was a huge crack from the rocks above us, like ice splitting when dropped into a glass of water. A landslide had started about three hundred metres above where we were hiking along the trail. Although it looked pretty insignificant at first, as the landslide gathered pace it picked up more and more mountain debris like when rolling a snowball through snow. It was clearly going to hit us so I grabbed your hand and ran back from where we had come as fast as I could in the hope of avoiding being hit. 

We were safe, but others in the group were not so quick to react. They got picked up by the falling rocks as they rumbled on down the mountainside and were literally swept along with it. We were both horrified and beside ourselves with shock. The odd thing was that Megumi-san was completely nonchalant about the whole incident. Having taken a roll call to establish who was missing, she said what a shame it was and asked the rest of us if we were OK to continue. When you questioned  if getting to the summit was still appropriate considering what had just happened, she replied by saying that was the risk of climbing mountains and we should be grateful that we got out of the way of the landslide.

So we continued to climb and reached the summit just before sunrise. We waited and waited, watching for the sun to emerge from below the horizon but after two hours it was just as dark as when we set out from the eighth station. There was then an announcement through a loudspeaker that ‘due to unforeseen circumstances the sun was unable to rise this morning and that an engineer was working to fix the problem as soon as possible.’ I was bitterly disappointed but you said that we might as well make the most of it as we had travelled all this way and suggested looking into Fuji-san’s crater which was lit with floodlights.

 We walked up a slope and then sharply down towards the crater which had a simple two parallel bar metal fence running around its perimeter. As we started looking into the crater, which was much deeper than I had expected, the fence that you were leaning against broke, you skidded, sending small stones down into the crater and a plume of volcanic dust into the air. I tried to grab you or any part of your clothing but it was too late and I saw you hurtling down into the centre of Fuji-san. As you fell you were shouting something to me. 

‘Shoichi! Don’t forget to write to me! I love you!’ 

And you were no more.

His tiredness had caused him to let down his emotional guard and for the first time he was overwhelmed with a feeling of loss as he recalled his dream; he was hit with the sudden reality that he really could lose Kimiko. His throat tightened as if trying to contain the sadness within but to no avail as tears rolled down in rivulets over his cheeks, ran down his neck and sunk into the material of his shirt, just below his Adam’s apple.

‘Please don’t leave me yet, Kimiko. We have so many new memories to make together. I’m not ready to begin a life without you,’ Shoichi said as the tears flowed more freely and his voice took on a tone of longing, of desperation and of fear. ‘Kimiko, please give me a sign, any sign, that you can hear me.’

Kimiko continued to lay with a tranquil look on her face, head turned towards Shoichi but unaware that he was there and the torment he was going through.

Shoichi was also unaware of the pain that Kimiko was reliving through her own memories from over sixty years ago and hundreds of kilometres north of her Tokyo hospital bed.

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?

Washing Over Me is available as a download for Kindle or as a printed paperback, both from Amazon:

Kindle Version – Amazon UK
Paperback – Amazon UK
Kindle Version – Amazon US
Paperback – Amazon US

Or search for “Washing Over Me Benjamin Brook” in your country’s Amazon homepage.

第十七章

25 August 2075

Encouraged by the news from Aoyagi-sensei, Shoichi decided to continue reliving with Kimiko the memories of their anniversary trip. He was conscious that he had been there for most of the day; as the afternoon moved through to early evening he noticed the subtle change in the light outside that gave a gentle and soft amber glow to the room as the weakening sunlight shone in through the windows.

For a few moments, he stared at Kimiko’s face, trying to picture it without the tubes and wires, trying to remember what she looked like the last time he had seen her before the stroke.

As he sat in the tatami room relaxing with a beer in his hand and with his head in a book about astronomy, Kimiko had appeared in the doorway.

‘How’s the book, Shoichi?’ she asked.

‘Oh, not bad, thanks,’ he replied, looking up from the pages and over the top of his reading glasses. ‘It’s pretty easy to understand, thankfully, as some of the others I had browsed online before ordering this were aimed at the more experienced stargazer.’

‘That’s good,’ said Kimiko. ‘Are you finally going to invest in the telescope that you have been wanting to buy for years now?’

‘I may well do just that,’ Shoichi said nodding thoughtfully and with a determined tone to his voice. ‘There are some advertised in here that are apparently perfect for the beginner and not too pricey either.’

‘I’m glad,’ she added. ‘It will do you some good to get into a hobby and perhaps join a local club. I’ve been very impressed with how much effort you have made since retirement keeping yourself fit by going to the local gym but worry that you are lacking something slightly more social.’

‘Not sure about that. I think that I had enough of dealing with people during my working life,’ he said. ‘One of the attractions of astronomy is that I can spend lots of time on my own staring up into space without having to make small talk with anyone.’

‘Charming! I hope that you don’t include me as someone with whom you want to avoid talking.’

‘Of course not, Kimiko,’ Shoichi answered quickly and then added to change the topic, ‘Is dinner going to be much longer? I’m famished.’

‘At least I’m some use to you, Shoichi,’ Kimiko said with a mock expression of anger on her face, puffing out her cheeks. ‘It will be another ten minutes so you can give me a hand getting the table set.’

As Kimiko went back to the kitchen to finish grilling the mackerel, Shoichi thought to himself how lucky he was to be married to her and smiled with a feeling of immense satisfaction about how his life had turned out.

Back at the hospital, he pictured the moment, wanting to undo what happened moments after that conversation had taken place, longing for the medical equipment to be removed so that he could once again look at her properly, hold her face and gaze into her eyes like watching stars in the night sky.

The quality of the oshiruko was evident from the fact that not a drop was left in any of the bowls which now sat empty on the table.

After they had said their thanks to Keiko for reviving them following the last difficult section of the climb, the group stood up and went to pick up their rucksacks from the rack where they had left them before eating.

‘That really was something else,’ Kimiko said to Shoichi. ‘I wasn’t expecting anything as good as that.’

‘It certainly was delicious,’ Shoichi agreed. ‘I kept thinking to myself whilst I was eating that it must be down to how tired I was, a bit like a beer at the end of a long day at work. However, putting that aside, it was an excellent oshiruko. I’m looking forward to having some more another time and in another place just to see how it compares.’

‘Hey look,’ Kimiko said as she peered out of the small window of the hut. ‘The clouds have cleared so we won’t need our wet weather gear anymore.’

‘For now, at least,’ Shoichi cautioned as he lifted Kimiko’s rucksack down from the top shelf and handed it to her. ‘I expect that it will still feel quite cold so let’s get ourselves outside first and then decide what we need to wear.’

‘Thanks,’ Kimiko said taking her rucksack and holding it down by her side as she walked out of the hut.

Back in the open, the clouds clearing away had certainly brightened things up, although the sun was now dipping towards the horizon and sunset wouldn’t be too far off. Nevertheless, it also afforded them a view of how much higher they had climbed in the last couple of hours. Whereas at the fifth station, they could still make out vehicles and individual buildings, at the seventh station the level of detail had changed; it was like zooming out of an online map to the point where it was only possible for them to make out broad areas below such as fields, built up areas and motorways snaking across the scenery below them.

‘Thank goodness Fuji-san has such a gentle incline further down or I’m sure that I would be feeling a sense of vertigo,’ Kimiko said.

‘We’re certainly a long way up, can you believe that some people hang-glide at this height?’ said Shoichi.

‘Really? I’m not sure that I would be happy launching myself off the side of this mountain,’ Kimiko said. ‘By the way, it’s nowhere near as cold as when we arrived, don’t you think?’

‘That earlier rain certainly made a difference,’ Shoichi said looking out towards the banks of clouds that hung in the sky away from Fuji-san, casting great shadows on the earth below. ‘I think that I’m going to continue for now with a couple of layers. My under-shirt and this shirt should be enough and once we get moving I’m sure that I’ll warm up even more’.

‘I think I’m going to put on my light fleece,’ Kimiko said reaching into her rucksack. ‘Standing out here for a few minutes has cooled me down again. I expect that it was all the body heat and steam from the kitchen inside the hut that warmed me up.’

As they got changed, others in the group held similar conversations and adjusted their clothing accordingly.

‘Is everyone ready?’ Megumi asked. ‘You can see that for a while we’ll be continuing at a similar gradient to that which we started on although the terrain is rockier in this section so please be careful. It will be like this for about another hour and we’ll be sure to have regular breaks. After that, and you’ll see for yourselves quite shortly, there will be another steep ascent to the eighth station where we’ll have some dinner and then get some sleep to give our bodies chance to acclimatise.’

‘Do you feel any different to when we left the fifth station?’ Shoichi asked Kimiko before taking in a deep breath to test his lungs. ‘I was expecting to find it more difficult to breathe but so far so good.’

‘No, I feel fine as well, although I expect that the eighth station is located at three thousand metres for a reason,’ Kimiko replied. ‘It must be where the air really begins to thin out.’

‘Now that you say that, I think that the guide book I read mentioned something about three thousand five hundred metres being when the official classification changes to very high altitude,’ Shoichi said as he dug his map of the Yoshidaguchi trail out of the thigh pocket of his trousers. ‘Look here, it seems that from the eighth station to the summit we’ll be climbing about seven hundred metres and I expect that not resting there could cause some problems.’

‘Oh, I do hope that we’ll be able to make it,’ Kimiko said.

‘Don’t worry, we’ll be fine,’ Shoichi reassured her. ‘I feel much better than I expected to by this stage and the pace Megumi and Mayumi are setting is reasonable.’

‘I’m sure you’re right,’ Kimiko replied.Aside from a few breaks to top up their energy levels with a variety of snacks and to take frequent sips from their water supplies, the next hour passed without incident as both Kimiko and Shoichi got back into the rhythm of the climb. The girl with the jikatabi pressed on toward the front of the group and was spending most of her time chatting with Megumi who was close to her age and therefore had more in common with her than the rest of the party.

It was beginning to get dark and during their last rest stop before the steep ascent to the eighth station, Megumi suggested that they put on the head-mounted lights that they had been recommended to bring along. The lower levels of natural light made the climb to the eighth station much more difficult than to the seventh and it took them over an hour to make it to where they would be spending a short night.

Once they had arrived, there was excited chatter as if the onset of night had rekindled childhood memories of school camping trips and sleepovers. However, this quickly evaporated into the ether as they were greeted by a rather grumpy and over-bearing manager who emerged from the hut.

‘Congratulations on making it this far,’ he said perfunctorily. ‘My name is Yamazawa and I am responsible for making sure that you use these facilities as they are intended.’

‘That’s a little bit rude,’ whispered Kimiko. ‘Does he not realise that if it weren’t for the customers he wouldn’t have a job? I’m sure that the owner wouldn’t be too happy if he knew about the way this man talks.’

‘Yes, he is a little abrupt,’ Shoichi agreed. ‘I wonder if he’s working on the principle that he’s unlikely to see any of us again. He’s got a bit of a monopoly up here and I am sure would have no qualms letting anyone know that if they didn’t like it they could sleep elsewhere.’

Yamazawa shot a look at Kimiko and Shoichi like a teacher about to scold pupils who were talking in class when they should have been listening.

‘I have made sure that your sleeping area is prepared and there is some curry and rice for your dinner, strictly one bowl each as the amount of food has been carefully calculated for the number of guests expected tonight. Please come inside and make yourself at home.’

‘As long as your usual home is in a military dormitory,’ Shoichi added, making Kimiko laugh, attracting another glare.

Upon entering, they were faced with a well organised twelve tatami mat room that had low tables already set for the curry dinner that Yamazawa had announced they would be eating. Having dealt with the formalities of introductions with his new guests, he had now turned his attention to one of his members of staff, checking whether a foreigner had removed his sweaty trousers before getting into his bed. Both Kimiko and Shoichi had to try hard to suppress a laugh when from behind a curtain the foreigner replied in very polite Japanese, but in a clearly disgruntled tone, that he had understood Yamazawa’s request and had done as asked so there was no need to check up on him.

‘Not a bad size,’ said Shoichi looking around. ‘I’m looking forward to getting a few hours’ sleep on these tatami. I wonder if they have proper futons or the roll-out kind?’

‘I don’t know,’ Kimiko said, shrugging her shoulders. ‘Perhaps Megumi-san will enlighten us.’

However, the sleeping arrangements did not require any further explanation as the foreigner who had amused them earlier emerged from what they had assumed was a bunk bed, pulling the curtain to one side and revealing what was actually in store. Packed in like sardines, people slept on two levels, men on top, women on the bottom, approximately a dozen per row.

‘Did you see?’ Kimiko asked with eyebrows raised in surprise. ‘Surely we won’t be sleeping like that, will we?’

‘I’ll see if I can catch Megumi-san during dinner,’ Shoichi said. ‘However, we don’t really have a choice. I feel rather naïve expecting this to be like a traditional Japanese inn.’

‘Oh, I don’t suppose it really matters,’ Kimiko said as she reflected on their situation. ‘I’m tired enough to be able to sleep pretty much anywhere and it’s not as if we are with complete strangers having travelled all this way from Ōfunato together.’

The curry and rice was served and tasted very good although the limited amount of beef and vegetables in the sauce seemed a reflection on Yamazawa’s miserly personality. Those serving the meal were not quite as strict with portions as Yamazawa had suggested they needed to be and so both Shoichi and Kimiko were able to eat more than enough to replenish the energy that they had expended thus far.

‘Good evening, everyone,’ Megumi said standing up, once sensing that enough of the party were approaching the end of their meal. ‘I’ve just been told that our beds are ready so those of you who have finished eating can start to get ready for some sleep. The washing facilities are in another building outside and to your right. These are free to use but I’m afraid that you’ll have to pay if you want to use the toilet. Are there any questions?’

The jikatabi lady raised her hand. 

‘What time did you say we will we be leaving in the morning?’ she asked.

‘I would like to give ourselves a further two hours to get from here to the summit,’ Megumi began to answer, ‘so we need to leave by three to ensure that we arrive in time for the sunrise.’

‘So we’ll have about four and a half hours here,’ Kimiko said to Shoichi after a quick mental calculation. ‘I’m sure that will be more than enough time to get used to the altitude although not nearly enough time to feel like we’ve had a good night’s sleep.’

‘It will be more than enough considering what we’ll be sleeping on’, Shoichi said frowning as he was tired, grumpy and ready for bed.

They set off to the washroom with two small towels and a shared wash bag. Shoichi dug into his rucksack to extract the purse containing the hundred-yen coins. Outside, it was peaceful as only a few headlamps passed in front of them from the slow stream of climbers who were hiking straight through the night; conversation was in whispers out of respect for those resting inside.

‘Here’s three hundred yen,’ Shoichi said as he handed over three one-hundred-yen coins to Kimiko.

‘Thank you,’ Kimiko said as she took the coins and put them into a trouser pocket which she then zipped up.

‘I hope that there is still going to be room to lie down by the time we get back,’ Shoichi said, now obsessing over the sleeping arrangements.

‘It depends on what you mean by room but I’m sure that there will be a spare strip for you to sleep on,’ Kimiko joked, trying to make light of the situation. ‘It will be OK, though, and it’s only for a few hours.’

‘See you outside in about ten minutes,’ Shoichi said, not willing to have his mood lifted.

‘Will do,’ said Kimiko as she handed him a toothbrush onto which she had squirted some toothpaste before walking towards the women’s half of the facilities.

Having washed, cleaned their teeth and spent three hundred yen each, Kimiko and Shoichi were finally ready for bed. The sleeping area was an exact replica of that they had seen when given an advanced screening by the foreign climber; single tatami mats laid next to each other across the width of the frame already looking full from those in their party who had got into bed before them.

The size of a tatami mat was considered to be large enough to accommodate two men sitting or one man lying down. The rest hut was re-defining this historical ratio as there were two tatami for three people meaning that the person in the middle of each trio would be lying on top of the slightly raised joining seam between two mats. However, the rolled futon provided to lay out over the tatami, although thin, was fortunately of good quality so the piggy-in-the-middle did not feel quite so put out. 

By chance, Shoichi and Kimiko had been assigned spaces at the end of the rows so although sleeping apart they would at least have the comfort of knowing that just a tatami mat and wadding made from wool held in a cotton case was all that separated them.

‘Oyasumi,’ Shoichi said bidding Kimiko goodnight.

‘Oyasumi,’ Kimiko whispered gently in reply.

Within minutes of settling down on their futons and under thin blankets – the hut was well insulated against the cold – Kimiko and Shoichi were asleep.

第十四章

11 March 2011 11:30

Talking about lunch earlier with Haruka had made me hungry especially now that I knew that gobō chicken was on the menu. Despite the big breakfast that I had eaten this morning, my stomach had started to gurgle and I hoped it would not get any louder or people would be able to hear it.

Before lunch, we had moral education which was always interesting as it got the whole class thinking and talking about what was good and bad behaviour although we were beginning to understanding that for some dilemmas it was not that straightforward.

Kinoshita-sensei returned from the staffroom with a DVD in his hand. Having wheeled out the television and player from the corner of the classroom and plugged it in, he pushed the disc into the slot at the front of the machine. A rather old-fashioned film appeared on the screen and I watched a story about a little boy called Tatsuya who was walking along the street in the middle of summer when he came across a wallet lying on the pavement. He picked up the wallet and looked inside to see if he could find a name and address of the owner but when he did so noticed that there was fifty thousand yen tucked into the notes section at the back.

It was at this point that Kinoshita-sensei paused the film.

‘So, class, what do you think Tatsuya should do next?’ he asked.

A hand shot up from the third row of desks, it was Rikimaru.

‘I think that he should take the wallet back to the owner straight away,’ he said.

‘OK, thank you Rikimaru-kun,’ Kinoshita-sensei said. ‘What do the rest of you think? Who agrees?’

There was a murmur of conversation and slowly a number of hands rose into the air until about a third of the class indicated that they agreed. I was not sure so kept my hand down by my side.

‘Thank you everyone. You can put them down now,’ he said with a wave of his arm.  ‘So, of those who did not raise your hands just now, do you disagree with Rikimaru-kun or are you still thinking?’

One of the video game boys, Kenta, raised his hand to talk and was acknowledged by Kinoshita-sensei.

‘I think that trying to return the wallet is the right thing to do,’ Kenta began. ‘But what if the person who dropped the wallet was dangerous? You shouldn’t go to their house on your own in case the person kidnapped you.’

I was pretty impressed with this point and had not considered that dangerous people could drop their wallets in just the same way as kind people could. There was further background noise that indicated broad agreement.

‘Very good, Kenta-kun. Thank you. You should be very careful going to the house of somebody whom you don’t know, especially if a long way from your neighbourhood. If you ever get invited into a stranger’s home, even if they are promising you something nice like a cold drink or a chance to play with their pets you should politely refuse and then tell your parents or a teacher about it,’ Kinoshita-sensei added. ‘What else do you think you could do with the wallet if taking it to the person’s home is not a good idea?’

I thought for a little while and was about to try an answer when Haruka beat me to it.

‘You could take the wallet to the nearest kōban police box,’ she said. ‘The policeman would then be able to find the owner and telephone them to arrange its return.’

‘Does this sound right?’ Kinoshita-sensei asked us, again testing the class to make sure that we were all involved in the lesson.

There were further sounds of agreement which Kinoshita-sensei detected without having to ask again for a show of hands.‘Yes, that’s right Haruka-chan,’ he said as he walked back over to the DVD player. ‘If you ever find anything that isn’t yours then you should either take it to a policeman in the nearest kōban or take it home to your parents. Now let’s watch some more.’

The film re-started but with another scene that was entitled “Earlier that day” and we were watching Tatsuya back at home with his family. Over breakfast, his mother and father were having a conversation about Tatsuya’s grandmother who lived with them and was still asleep in the small tatami room at the back of the house. Through this part of the film we learnt that Tatsuya’s obāchan was not well and needed an operation on her eyes which she could no longer see with because she had something called a cataract on each one. Tatsuya’s parents wanted to help but did not have enough money to pay the forty thousand yen contribution towards the operation as Tatsuya’s father had recently lost his job and was struggling to find work. The family had used nearly all of their savings and had only enough money left to pay for essentials like food and electricity.

Tatsuya said ittekimasu as he left the house and we were back to the same scene of him finding the wallet on the floor. As he picked it up, Tatsuya’s grandmother with her poorly eyes appeared in a big thought bubble above his head. It was here that Kinoshita-sensei paused the film again.

This is exactly why I love these lessons. Just when I thought we had come to an answer that everyone agreed with, suddenly there is a whole new meaning to the story.

‘It really would be great for Tatsuya’s obāchan to have that eye operation, wouldn’t it?’ Kinoshita-sensei asked to provoke some further discussion.

‘I still think that he should take the wallet to the policeman,’ Haruka said, not wanting to concede her earlier position.

‘I agree,’ said a voice. Everyone turned around. It was Hiroshi who had spoken which came as a surprise to many as he often kept very quiet during lessons. ‘Even though his grandmother is sick, it’s not his money and he would still have to tell his parents where he got it from. Although they really could use the money I don’t think that they would spend it without knowing where it came from.’

‘That’s right,’ said Haruka. ‘Even though his grandmother needs an operation it doesn’t have to be straight away and I’m sure that Tatsuya’s father will get a job soon and then they will be able to pay for it themselves.’

Kinoshita-sensei had sat down at the teacher’s desk and had a look on his face that showed us he was enjoying the conversation that the film had prompted.

‘Even so, it really looked like he loved his grandmother, and that thing over her eyes looked horrible. Poor obāchan,’ Kumi the manga artist chipped in. ‘It’s easy for us to sit here and say that we would give the money to the policeman but what if it were your own grandmother?’

‘I know, Kumi-chan, and it would be more difficult if it were my grandmother but taking something that isn’t yours is stealing no matter what it is for,’ Haruka replied to this challenge.

‘But poor obāchan!’ Kumi pleaded.

‘No, I’ve made up my mind,’ Haruka said with some resolve. ‘He should take the wallet to the kōban.’

Whilst this conversation was going on, I had been thinking about what I would do if in Tatsuya’s shoes. I was not sure. Of course, I knew that stealing was wrong and even more than that I knew that Okāsan would never let me offer her money without knowing exactly where it came from. I decided to make a suggestion anyway.

‘What if Tatsuya just borrowed the money until his father got a new job and could pay it back?’ I said. ‘The family could keep hold of the wallet until then, replace the money they borrowed and then hand it into the police after a month or so.’

‘That still isn’t right,’ Haruka said as she looked at me with slightly disbelieving eyes. ‘Besides, his parents would need to agree to that and I don’t think that they would.’

 ‘Let’s have a look and see what Tatsuya does,’ Kinoshita-sensei said, standing up from his chair, walking over to the DVD player and pressing the play button once more.

The film continued and we were all expecting Tatsuya to pick up the wallet and take it to the kōban, as we all now knew that this was the right thing to do no matter how difficult circumstances were for him at home. However, the film cut to another scene of a man breaking into a house, stealing some money that was in an envelope sitting in the genkan by the front door. There were a few gasps as we watched the close up of five ten-thousand-yen notes being slipped into the wallet that Tatsuya would later find on the pavement.

‘What do you think now?’ Kinoshita-sensei asked.

‘I still think that Tatsuya should take the wallet to the police,’ Haruka came straight back with. ‘Although I did feel sorry for the man who dropped the wallet, now I know that it was not his money in the first place I am angry with him and feel sorry for the family whose money he stole.’

‘How about anyone else?’ Kinoshita-sensei asked.

‘I think that we shouldn’t worry too much about where the money came from,’ said Hiroshi. ‘What matters is Tatsuya doing the right thing and that still means taking the wallet to the police.’

Kinoshita-sensei turned around to look at the clock that was hung above the blackboard.

‘I’m afraid class we have run out of time for today. However, I have been very impressed with the discussion and I think that the last point made by Hiroshi-kun is a very important one when thinking about moral dilemmas. In many cases, decisions that you have to make in life won’t always be clear cut and you will need to apply your judgement to these decisions. When you do, be guided by your own morals and try your best to do the right thing. Shall we see how it ended for Tatsuya?’

The film started again and we saw Tatsuya pick up the wallet and hand it to a local policeman. The policemen then took the wallet back to the kōban to begin to track down its owner. He frowned as he took out the driving licence and looked at the picture of the man as if he recognised him from somewhere. Sitting on the fax machine behind him was a freeze-frame of some footage from a CCTV camera and the words “Wanted” written below in bold. It was the same man whose wallet had just been handed in. The final scene of the film was Tatsuya at home with his grandmother who, from the healthy look of her eyes, had been into hospital for the operation and as the camera panned out we saw a newspaper cutting stuck to the wall in the kitchen with a picture of Tatsuya right in the middle.

Local Boy A Hero

Young Tatsuya-kun helps police to track down local criminal and receives a forty thousand yen reward from one of the victims whose paintings were returned to him following a search of the burglar’s home…

***

…just a touch more then I’m off…

…can’t wait…

…this is going to be fun…