7/13/08 Miyagi by Day and Hedo Celebrity Sighting
I awoke to the sound of what seemed to be thousands of cicadas. I've read that the sound of cicadas is often used be filmmakers and animators to represent silence and the great outdoors and the buzz and scratch noise they make is really the males' love song to the females. Romance at Miyagi! I got dressed and went to join the international group for breakfast. Naomi san put a tray in front of me with rice and miso soup and scrambled eggs and papaya and grilled fish and it was delicious, all on a lacquered tray and set in those sweet little individual bowls. Eating fish, bones and all with chopsticks in one hand is a real challenge to knife and fork users. I watched the Japanese manage to make quick work of it, like delicate surgery, but I finally broke down and used a bit of left hand finger and was able to feed myself the fish, while looking like the heathen I am, I'm sure. I was able to do fine at Nakadomari Seafood where the whole fish was large, but these tiny little petit breakfast fish are another thing altogether.
I checked my email with via the miraculous existence of wifi in this little place. I don't know where it is drifting over from, but it is making my life exceedingly easier since I'd be very behind with my blogging by the time I left here if I didn't have it. I had an email from my daughter with a last minute fashion emergency before she left for camp and decided to use some of my remaining rental phone prepaid card minutes to help allay her fears. However, there is no cell service here. Wifi, yes. Cell service, no.
Shig and Tomo were on there way to another place in Naha and came around to say goodbye. Shig took time to help me with my GPS and show me how to use a few things, also he taught me how to turn down my Japanese woman's voice, the voice that will not stop talking to me. I am so grateful to him and so thankful to have been able to meet him and his lovely Tomo. We exchange email addresses and he gives me his cell number to call him if I have any problems or need help with translations while I am here. I appreciate this generous gesture.
I decided to go on out to Hedo Point to have a look around and to use my cell phone, as I know it exists there because that is where I pulled over to check my directions the night before. I call my girl and her dad and they say they'll leave to go to his office to call me back with his international service so I don't have to use any more of the last 18 international minutes I have until I can get more on Wednesday when my friend will take me back to base. It is 10:20PM Saturday in Atlanta.
I was snapping pictures and looked up to see two gorgeous little blonde girls I recognized! Right behind them, I saw their parents, whom I recognized!! This was Marisa and her family from one of the blogs I love to read, 'Risa's Pieces! Marisa spotted me at the same time and we approached each other with smiles and about that time, my call came in. I was able to help my girl with her dilemna of what to take for leisure while at running camp, although we had laid out every single possible other thing she'd need before I left. It just about killed me not to be there for her, but we managed to make it and I think she felt just fine before it was over.
When I hung up, I went over and Marisa and I were able to finally meet and talk and it was so incredible! She was sporting a brand new fabulous SLR camera and I have just loved seeing her photographs on her blog as she is so talented and her subjects so beautiful and I could not believe I was meeting her and her family in person!! She was just as surprised to be meeting me, I think, and this is just the kind of thing that makes the internet worthwhile for me. In our big, sometimes fast moving world, we can expand our horizons and people can inspire each other and entertain each other and make friends with each other. I already felt like I'd known Marisa and we have a lot in common just by virtue of the fact that we are both military brats and both have spent a good deal of time in GA and AL.
Before we left each other, I knew for sure I had a friend and she made sure I had her phone numbers in case I needed anything while I'm here. I am meeting no end of generous people and it is so comforting! We took pictures of each other and together and now we can share our pictures on our blogs. It's a small world after all!
After lots more Hedo photos, it was time to head back to Miyagi to do some blog work and soak up the vibe and take some pictures. I decided there is no way to possibly do this place justice with a camera. The lens is not wide enough or tall enough and there are too many surprises around every corner. I've decided to do a video tour before I leave here and I think I stand a better chance of capturing the place and how things are connected that way. I may not be able to post it until I get home, but I'll have it and put it in as soon as I can.
In the afternoon, Miyagi took me around the property, plucking a leaf from this bush and that plant and this other thing that I'd have thought was a weed or kudzu and I ate every leaf he offered. One was spicy, one minty, one fresh and green tasting. Miyagi lives very close to the land, growning or catching most of what he serves at the minshuku.
Before dinner, new people arrive in to Miyagi. Mike and Mariko are a beautiful married couple from Yokohama. He is a Canadian teacher of English and his Japanese sounds fluent to me, as he has been in Japan for 8 years. The other new members of our little band are two Japanese girls from Sendai, both named Sayaka! They are adorable and are here because it is impossible for them to truly relax in Sendai. Dinner tonight is delicious, again.
We have an eggplant and tofu dish, the wonderfuwhole fish salad, some cooked Okinawan pumpkin,
goya strips, a cooked Okinawan root vegetable, a salad with some of the flavorful greens growing on the property, rice with tiny seaweed in it and miso with strips of soft something that Mike said was the rind of tofu.
Our little group has lively and interesting conversation. I think it must be like living in the International House in college. Mike is our new interpreter and takes to his role with good humor. Our host, Miyagi, is eating something different from us. He has a single plastic container and is eating a concoction made with tiny shreds of raw beef. I declined the offer to try it, even though I hadn't read about any rare Japanese raw beef disease. The Japanese encephalitis from mosquitos was quite rare, Shig had assured me and my other friends had told me not to worry. I think I've decided that to worry is a decision, not something we don't have control over, but it's hard in the moment to have the right perspective about it.
I could be wrong about that. I mention here that Miyagi san enjoys his awamori and as our group drifts away from the table, someone taps Miyagi on the shoulder, as he has put his head down on the table and seems to have gone to sleep. I can't imagine what a long day these days are for someone with this many guests to care for.
Lina and Klaus invite me to walk up to the vending machines outside the little convenience store. She first gets the long staff to knock around ahead of us as we walk to scare off any habu that might be out in the night. This couple is so adorable and interesting and friendly and I enjoy talking to them. This couple and her parents are here without a rental car in this remote part of Okinawa. They take off walking and exploring all the time and take taxis and buses if they want to do something that is farther than they can walk. They love to go down to the ocean and swim and snorkel and have a great joy of life and being together. They seem to know how to find balance in their lives.
Mike offers to pour me a drink of his Ume Shu. It's a canned drink that is made of plum and it is effervescent and it tastes like a fruit soda, but is 5% alcohol. It is really delicious! Afterwards, Mike and Mariko and the Sayakas ask if I want to join them, walking down the little lane with the grass in the middle and bushes on either side to walk down to the seawall. Mike has a broom to sweep for habu and one of the Sayakas has a flashlight and off we go. Thankfully, we don't see one of the dreaded snakes and go to sit, followed by one of the cats, on the seawall for a while and listen to the gentle waves lapping the shore and watch the bats fly back and forth over our heads.
Later that night, after I posted and wrote, it got pretty late, 1:00AM, and I made my futon and sat for a long time listening to the chirping of a gekko in my room until he finally came out of hiding and I got his picture. I know for a fact that gekkos are good luck and I'm glad to have mine here with me. I saw a giant spider crawl into a crack on the opposite wall. Somewhere, a bug, maybe a cicada, had gotten in and it hit the glass over and over until it got quiet. That's a lot of nature in one room, but what do you expect in a magic tree house?
