The Gangsters in Nagahama

Just one gangster, actually — my 4-year-old “host brother for a day,” Yamato.

Yesterday (Sept 23) was the Autumn Equinox, which equaled no classes for us. Deciding that anything was better than wasting my time in Japan lounging in my room, I signed up to go explore the neighboring village of Nagahama with some Japanese families who’d volunteered to take any who wanted to go. At 10am, I headed over to the large conference room on the second floor of the academic building, where the constant dull roar of a talking crowd was creeping out the room and down the stairs.

I grabbed a name tag quickly and scribbled my name in jagged katakana, since the pen was about as dry as a dead leaf. Immediately upon walking into the room, I was greeted by a young Japanese woman with a chart who directed me to table F. Sure. Why not.

I sat down alone, observing the other people who had already begun chit chatting with the Japanese families at their tables. My own day-host-mother soon appeared with a little red-shirted boy in tow. He saw me, frowned, and crept behind his mother’s chair as she sat down. Her name tag read “Atsuko.”

We played some ice breaker games like name bingo and conversation cues and one of my classmates, Josh, showed up to join the trip. Yamato started coming out of his shell a little bit when he realized that you get candy for winning bingo. He climbed up his (ever patient) mother like she was a tree, then shouted, “I want bingo!”

When she pointed out that they didn’t have it yet, he bopped her on the head and said, “Omae.” [Slang for “you,” used almost exclusively by boys.] After he tossed out a few more sentences ending with “ze” or “zo,” I could tell that his main goal here wasn’t to go visit Nagahama.

He was just in it to impress the foreigners with his “tough guy” Japanese.

*****

We saw various things throughout the day to the tune of Yamato scampering around the streets and Atsuko-san repeatedly apologizing for his rambunctiousness. We walked along the narrow streets of Nagahama, a village trying to find the balance between “old Japan” and its modern need for industrialization.

Atsuko-san suggested that we stop and get something for lunch before diving into the center of Nagahama.

“I want to eat ramen!” Yamata shouted.

“You do?” his mother replied.

“Like, I REALLY want ramen!” he said.

Ramen it is.

We took our time with lunch, enjoying the small, friendly atmosphere of the ramen shop. It was hot outside, so I opted for some fried rice instead of the warm soup. One of Atsuko’s friends was planning a trip to Fushimi Inari, so we had a lovely conversation in Japanese about what I like about that place and about other things to do there. Yamato sat eyeing his mother hopefully in between mini-meals, waiting for her to scoop more ramen from the large bowl into his much tinier one.

The conversation turned to what I want to do after I get back from Japan. I opened my mouth to respond, but Yamato sat up very tall in his chair and said simply, “When I grow up, I want to sell shaved ice.”

*****

After lunch, we explored a bit; by far, my favorite place that we visited was the Kaiyodo Figure Museum. Its sculptures were phenomenal. I made sure to snap many a picture of this guy, my natural favorite:

Look at his beautiful face.

They had an amazingly creative variety of sculptures, from lifesize models of the characters of Ah! My Goddess! to miniatures depicting complex scenes of samurai warfare.

After that it was a few visits to some other unique places, like the local glass-blower’s shop and a train museum. We stopped by a sweets shop as we were getting ready to wrap up our day, and as I passed through the old wooden doorframe, some bright neon thingies caught my eye. I turned, and lo and behold, konpeito.

If you don’t recognize them, they are little rock candies. This scene from Spirited Away might help jog your memory.

And here I thought these weren’t real candies. Needless to say, that kind of also made my day.

While our time in Nagahama had been short, it’s close enough to reach by a long bike ride, so I’ll definitely be going back. Once we’d returned to JCMU, Yamato kind of sidled up to me and waved goodbye, like, “I want to act cool like I don’t like you, but you’re okay.”

As his mother turned to leave, he waved again, and in his hand was a giant plastic centipede he’d won from a gachapon (you know, pay 25 cents, turn the crank, get a thing in a plastic orb?). He seemed sad that he’d forgotten to try to scare me with it again.