A tale of life in Japan..? 17 1 16 (8) 25 2 20

Of course all my readers know of this fact already and also know that her husband my eldest son S is or one day may become my biographer if ever such a thing were to happen because he belongs to the literary types in our great family and there are a growing number of us who like to put pen to paper. Why only this morning i noted that my youngest granddaughter Si also penned a pic of one of her fictional characters that is set to appear in her third novel: not bad for a 23 year old wouldn't you agree?

Well Sa also belongs to this group and I would guess she occupies first or second place in the pecking order having had some of her articles accepted for publication by for example "Cosmopolitan Magazine" in Japan, and she too just yesterday was talking to my wife about writing a book about figure-skating, a sport she is particularly interested in following..?  

But after a stressful afternoon coffee party on Saturday last for R who is my wife's elder brother, K-J's wife who celebrated joining the set of the oldest members of our clan together with myself born 2 months earlier, and J my wife's older sister, P's husband J, born 2 months older than I : her younger brother K-W and his wife G a good 7 years behind this older group with a gradation of ages for P and my wife A-E in between... it was a pleasure catching up with S and Sa together with their two boys A and D at their home nearer the capital, conveniently situated on our way home from the earlier get-together.  

During the course of our sojourn she reminded me about some of the details concerning her Japanese family when I asked her how many brothers and sisters her parents had. She began by telling me how short the people in her father’s family were, with the notable exception being her father who was of a similar height to me, about 5ft 8 in or 171 cm, his two elder sister’s being both shorter and how their house in Naha City in the years following WW ll was so small it’s having to be rebuilt and how Sa’s younger brother T had to bend down to gain access on the ground floor. She later added how the second floor was higher in the ceiling so everyone could stand up but how she thought this part of the house was added later..?

Then she switched to talking about her mother’s family when she declared that her great grandparent’s children, including her grandmother were renowned for being especially well turned out in the village where they lived, before her great grandmother died leaving her great grandfather of a marriageable age still when he re-married and had another family with her grandmother’s step mother. But how this second lot of children were not so well turned out, and how this woman was not so friendlily disposed to Bama, Sa’s grandmother, but only to her elder sibling who was accorded respect because he was also the eldest son. She exemplified these details by adding that Bama was also very bright academically and how in those days children could skip up to a maximum of 2 school years to leave school early and how her grandmother was able to leave school at 14 years as opposed to the more normal age of 16 that is from Junior High School… This in turn lead to Bama having an arranged marriage at an earlier age than usual because her father feared for her safety in the home this step mother presided over. One day upon his return from a business trip he found his eldest daughter with her arm bandaged when Sa explained that the step mother had attacked her with scythe (or sickle?) turning round in the nick of time to see the weapon brandished when she fended it off with her forearm losing a slice of flesh and muscle in the process. This she had the presence of mind to collect before she repaired to binding it in place on her arm with herbs or possibly aloe vera (?) to hasten the healing process but how she bore scars to validate the story for the rest of her life. She then went on to tell how Bama had 6 children two of which she lost in childhood a boy as an infant when her own mother was only 2 years old and an older brother who died aged 10: a very interesting story especially in the light of our having visited Bama’s house on Okinawa when we visited to attend our son and daughter-in-law’s wedding ceremony in the mid 90’s: a traditional Japanese house of three rooms comprising kitchen living room cum bedroom and reception room which also served as a shrine to dead relatives… Have a good day everyone as i hope you have not only old people in your live but younger people too..! hahaha 

The treasure that is my Japanese Daughter-in-law Sa...17 1 16