1 January 2009

Aidan and Sachi had invited us to join them at her family home down near Kamakura. We were collected from Tsujido station by Aidan and Mr Uno, who seemed quite a gruff little man at first. He took us about 300m to the hotel they had booked for us (there being no room at their house). We would happily have walked if we'd known it was that close, but no doubt he would still have insisted, since he wanted to make sure that he picked up the tab when we checked in. Extremely generous, but I still have trouble with accepting Japanese hospitality.

As he was waiting in the car, I felt under pressure to set the room up for later as fast as possible. For once it was a western room, so there was no futon for Emily to sleep on. We'd taken the travel cot, but as is typical in Japanse hotels the room wasn't blessed with any spare space. We thought there might just be room for it, though it would mean climbing over it in near darkness later, so I started assembling it. However, in the rush and under stress I managed to snap one of the geodesic poles. It didn't help my temper that the place was heated to furnace level, so we just grabbed a few necessities, opened the window as wide as it would go and rushed down to our hosts.

At their sizable detached house a couple of miles away, we were greeted effusively by Sachi's mother, brother and sister in law. We'd met her family briefly in 2007, at their wedding in California. Unfortunately they couldn't speak English any better than I speak Japanese, but somehow we managed to communicate the basics. Emily immdiately became the star attraction and was ecstatic when she saw their dachshund Purin. Plates of cheese and fruit were soon put out, and she wasted no time in helping herself. They thought it funny when she insisted on taking two of everything, as she likes to eat from alternate hands.

Soon after, Sachi's grandmother arrived, clothed in traditional dress though not full kimono and obi. I really felt frustrated at not being able to converse with them all without constant translation, and felt a bit guilty that Sachi, Aidan and Nick had to talk in English for my sake, thereby excluding the others. We sat down to some Japanese dishes while the others took care of Emily. Sachi's dad suddenly seemed a lot mellower, and I soon realised what a nice man he is. He really likes a good drink, Scotch being his thing, and said he wants to take Nick out for an evening sometime and show him the 'behind of the behind' of Japanese society, whatever that means. I was gobsmacked when he presented us with New Year gifts; for Nick, a bottle of Scotch, and for me a money envelope. I didn't realise what it was at first, and opened it in front of them. When I saw the flash of a large note I didn't know what to say (later I found that there was not one but two ichiman-en notes (at today's rates that is about £140). Sachi assured me that it is the custom to give these envelopes to one's children at New Year, but it did make me very uncomfortable all the same.

Emily tried her luck one too many times with Purin, who suddenly took exception to being hassld and snapped at her. I thought at first that she'd actually bitten her on the face. Grandma started demonstrating the tea ceremony, and I went over to watch. She kindly allowed me to have a go at the very complex series of precise moves. The resulting green tea was not as bitter as I expected; in fact, it was quite moreish and I asked for another. She is an amazing lady: aged 86 but looks 70. She puts it down to swimming every day (her daughter taught her when she was 70) and rubbing green tea on her face. There was a great painting of Fuji on wall, which grandma apparently painted twenty years ago. She also started handing me various gifts, though Sachi said she was clearing out as she doesn't want to leave lots of junk when she goes!

It was way beyond Emily's bedtime, so I got her ready. She was still very stimulated, but I took her upstairs to a makeshift bed of blankets onthe floor in Aidan's room. Then after she'd had her bottle and I'd laid her down I suddenly realised she had done a poo. I had to take her back down to the loo, which was freezing cold. In Japan, they often only heat one room and the remainder are chilly. No sooner was she settled back into her sleeping bag than I thought she'd done another, but I decided to leave it rather than undress her and take her back downstairs yet again (bad move, leading to much guilt, when she got a terrible rash next day). Eventually, with help of her beloved monkey, she went off to sleep and I was able to rejoin the fun downstairs.

We sat and drank sake and picked at snacks, but it seemed that we all felt weary, so we felt it was time to leave for the hotel at elevenish. The taxi was called, and with much trepidation I went to wake Emily. I'd never done this before, so was not sure how she'd take to being moved late in the evening. In the end, she cried out, then dropped back off on my shoulder. At the hotel, we were glad to find the room cooler. We put Emily down to sleep on towels on the floor in the small gap between bed and window, and she hardly stirred.