Japan - Day 7, Part 2: Meeting Sumiko and Harumizu

We continued on to meet more relatives.  As we drove up to this home, I couldn't help but notice the bonsai pots growing around.  Either bonsai trees are a common hobby in Japan or it's simply common in our family.

 We were welcomed into Aunt Sumiko's home by her daughter-in-law Akiko.  When I saw Aunt Sumiko I started to tear up.  She looks so much like my grandmother.  I felt like I got to see and touch and hear a piece of her as I got to see and touch and hear her sister.  She is my grandmother's youngest sister and everyone affirmed to me that they look the most like each other.  I love the series of photos that Blake took of us trying to talk to each other.

 I don't remember what she said to me, but she slapped me on the knee and laughed.

Akiko, Janet, Sumiko & Youichi.  Youichi is Sumiko's son (my dad's cousin) and Akiko is his wife.  He had been working outside and came in when we arrived.  He and Shinobu chatted while we were sitting with Aunt Sumiko.

I remember thinking that I needed to bring my kids back to meet Sumiko again.  In fact, I even think she asked me to visit again and bring my kids back with me next time.

Next we headed even deeper into the country side to visit my dad's Uncle Harumizu.  As we drove past rice paddies, raised beds, and country homes it seemed to me that I was seeing in real life what the animators so accurately depicted in My Neighbor Totoro.  The details were amazing - the people walking in sun hats, the raised dirt barriers by the rice paddies, the wooded hills shooting up from the flat rice paddies, even the ice and water signs at the entrance to small streets and driveways.  As much as the big city had lots of things to look at, I was taking in all the details of the countryside.

My uncle Shinobu hadn't been to Harumizu's home in a long time and pretty soon he pulled over to call Harumizu to get directions.  That gave me time to step out of the car and look up close at the rice neatly planted rows of rice in the paddy.

Harumizu drove his little white truck out to find us and we followed him back to his home.  The detail on his roof looked nearly as detailed as some of the temples we had seen earlier.

He had married a woman who's family had no sons to inherit the family home, so he took her last name and they continue the legacy of her family.

My dad grew up calling Harumizu "Hakko Onchan", meaning Uncle Hakko.  He was the youngest uncle, a teenager when my dad was little, and Hakko Onchan was his favorite.  When they spent the night at his grandparents home, my dad always wanted to be next to Hakko Onchan for the night.

When I saw Harumizu for the first time, I was shocked.  He looked more like my dad than my grandmother or my grandfather.  It was like I was looking at my dad 15 years in the future.  His body shape, his posture, his head, his hair, his walk, everything seemed the same as my own dad.  While our other relatives maybe had a family resemblance, my dad was the spitting image of Harumizu.  Blake recognized it, too.  I mentioned this to the group and they all told me that they always said he and my dad had the same face.

Again we sat and showed pictures.  They were shocked that my parents both have grey hair and look like grandparents.  And again they brought out, one at a time, every kind of snack and treat we could have imagined.  They even brought out hot face towels to refresh us.  Look at that spread!  I was particularly amused by the ice-cream cup.  The grape flavored swirl was in the design of a happy face.  I expected it to get less distinctive as I ate, but it stayed a perfect smile straight down to the bottom of the cup.  The salt pickled cucumbers were a treat, too.  They had even brought us mugicha, a barley drink, since we don't drink tea.  For not having a formal meal our tummies were full!

I loved these flowers next to the house.  They looked like paper folded up, and then when blossomed it still looks like a delicate tissue paper star.

Aunt Akemi, Uncle Harumizu with his wife, daughter (in law?) & granddaughter, and me.

I barely rested my hand on Harumizu's back as we posed for the picture and I was again shocked that his back even felt like my dad's.  I wonder how similar their personalities are as well.