Lately, it seems that I am reminising about my life in Japan. A feed came across my Facebook page, where others who lived in Northern Honshu began to post and I was fascinated. The black and white photos sent me straight back to my high school years living there. Funny, isn’t it, how a photo, a song, a smell or other things can erase time and transport you back to younger days! This morning one of the posts was of a map of Japan showing an earthquake and the intensity of same and wouldn’t you know that area of Norther Honshu was shaking the most! Not unusual if you’ve ever lived in a state or country where earthquakes are almost a daily thing.
Let me address the three photos above now. And just to clarify, “no” those are not my legs!
The year was 1968, October to be exact and my father came home, and told us he had be redeployed back to Japan, but in a remote area in Northern Honshu. I thought, “oh great, I just started my driver’s ed training and now I will never learn how to drive!” Why, you may wonder. On a military base overseas at that time, dependents [meaning teenagers] were not permitted to drive and nor was there a driver’s ed course in high school.
My father went on to say that there had just been a huge earthquake in that area and the flight line had been ripped into two pieces! The locals would dub it: “Great Shakes Day” was 16 May 1968 when a major earthquake centered in the Pacific Ocean just off the east coast of Misawa killed 27, injured 210 and left 10 missing in the northern Japan area. Oh joy, another bonus of moving to a place trying to recover from an 7.8 earthquake on the Rieter Scale. Dad went on to tell us, life would be very different there due to its location which was paraelle with Siberia! What! Get out you maps or globes and now it was becoming real.
When we arrived in Ocotber, the flight line had been repaired and the base was mostly recovered from the devastating earthquake in April ’68. It was very cold and dippping below freezing and then the first lesson about “cold, freezing “Flesh Alerts” was about to be taught by our father.
“The tea kettle lesson.”
One morning my father called us all to a closed front door on our base quarters. My mother emerged from the kitchen with a steaming tea kettle and a metal ice cube tray. My father took the tray and kettle. He opened the front door and poured the boiling water into the ice cube tray and set the ice cube tray on the front porch. IMMEDIAELY, the boiling water froze and he quickly shut the door and told his young daughter’s: “This is what will happen to you if you do not dress warm, and cover up your exposed skin, when it is winter here!” He told us the base issued “Flesh Freezing Alerts” to all personnel to give them fair warning about the extreme cold. Okay, lesson learned.
“The mini-skirt lesson.” I am hoping that you already get the gist of what this lesson was about! It is the fashion of the day when all self-respecting high school girls were dressed in miniskirts which barely covered their backsides, but not where we lived. Bare legs and bare arms were an invitation for freezing skin. So, what’s a high school girl to do? You guessed it. Dressup like an Eskimo from head to toe and take it off and shove it in your locker and wha-la mini skirt time! Only do you know what, it didn’t work. I had to redress for P.E. class because you exercised outside even in the cold! A girl can’t catch a break over here! You can’t blame a girl for trying!
Here’s a news flash, the average snowfall in this place is: 128.7 to 150 inches. In 1984, the base recorded over 240 inches of snow, and in December 2020, it saw a record 72.4 inches in that month alone. Daily Records: Single-day, 24-hour, or weekend snowfalls can easily exceed 27 inches. The photo on the left is what “normal” looks like from mid-October thru mid-March or if we had a lot of snow that year, late April.
“The cherry blossom lesson.” Spring does arrive in this part of Japan and just in time for the Kanazawa Cherry Trees to bloom. This was my favorite time of year! The air was still crisp but clean and instead of white, white, white everywhere, there were giant trees blooming in soft pink shades. There are lots of “Cherry Blossom” festivals in Japan and as students we attended many of these. The photo on the left is “Hiroaki Castle” in the region we lived in. When our high school class took a train to this castle, the inside was decorated with garlands of pink cherry blossom petals. I remember on my last train ride, I asked if I could remove one of the decorations of cherry blossoms from the train ceiling and was given permission. I took it to college with me. And it now resides in my keepsake box in my closet. From time to time, I take it out and remember.
When the cherry blossoms begin to fade another wonderful event occurs! Instead of white fluffy snowflakes falling, as I walked to school, the air was filled with small pink soft petals blown from the trees. I just loved it!
So, what triggers your memories? As with everything in life there are good memories and bad memories. It is our perspective which makes memories of what they are residing deep in our minds and then suddenly they will be triggered by an event or smell that brings them rushing back into our day.
janice@janicebastanicoaching.com
8914 Collina Ct.
Granite Bay, CA 95746
908-229-3797
www.janicebastanicoaching.com
www.johnmaxwellgroup.com/janicebastani
