Chapter 27: What are your lasting memories of living in Japan?

I was stationed in Okinawa for 7.5 years and at Yokota for 7 years and continued living here since October 1989. That is a total of more than 45 years. I was born and grew up in Seattle for about 19 years and was stationed in Idaho, Nevada and Arizona for another 6 years and in Vietnam and Thailand for about 3.5 years. I have lived in Japan well over half of my life.

Of course, I have so many unforgettable memories, but I will try to describe some of the special ones.

When I first arrived at Yokota, we stayed in billeting. In the military, billeting is like a hotel. Usually, you stay in billeting for about a week to find off-base housing. We were lucky that a tower apartment on base was available for us, but we had to wait a month for the family to move out and maintenance done before we could move in. The unit we stayed in had two bedrooms with a bathroom for us and another two bedrooms with a bathroom that was used for people who were leaving the base or for families who were just traveling through the base. So, a departing family would stay for about 7 days and then a different family staying one night for three days. We met a lot of people. We became friends with one family that was leaving the base. They held several “sayonara” parties in the common area which included a living room and kitchenette. The other couple’s wife and Keiko talked a lot about Yokota and the surrounding areas. The other wife told Keiko to call her friend, Minato-san, who lives in Ise, Mie Prefecture. A year later, the other wife returned to Japan to visit her family. She first visited us at our tower apartment. The first thing she asked was if we had called Minato-san. Keiko said no, and the other lady picked up our phone and called. After a few minutes of talking, she handed the phone to Keiko. The two of them talked for about a half hour. Minato-san told Keiko that we had to visit Ise and that if we didn’t visit soon, we would probably never visit. A few weeks later we drove there, and we became close family friends quickly. 

Ise Shrine was established about 2,000 years ago. Since around the year 685, the shrine building has been rebuilt every 20 years except during the Sengoku Jidai, or “Waring States Period” from 1467 to 1615. It takes about eight years to completely build the new shrines. They use the exact same techniques to build it as they did for the original shrine. We attended the new shrine ceremony in 1993. The first ceremony was several years before that when 200-year-old cypress tree logs were pulled through the city to the Geku Shrine and then another ceremony when the trees were pulled up the river to the Naiku Shrine. For the opening ceremony, our family were special guests and were allowed to carry blessed white stones into the area surrounding the shrine building. Only Ise citizens and special guests were allowed to carry these stones. To me, that was a great honor.

Fast forward to 2013. For this ceremony, Keiko had already passed away. Our good friends, the Takebas, wanted to attend the ceremony. This time I participated in pulling a sled of stones up the river. I had to go to “Sumo Town” in Ryogoku, in Central Tokyo, to find a pair of “tabi” that would fit my feet. Workers’ tabi have a rubber sole, so they are good for walking on the stones in a river. There were two very long lines of people pulling on two ropes. The water was from knee deep to waist deep. The hardest part was pulling the sled full of stones onto the dry ground up a dirt and stone path. We had to do it at a run and if we stopped, it would be very hard to start again. After showering and changing clothes, we returned to the shrine to carry the stones into the shrine area. We lined up, two by two, and were given a blessed stone. First, we bowed in respect to the old shrine, bowed again to the new shrine and slowly entered the gate. Just as we entered the gate, to the left, in the corner, there was a big group of photographers and TV cameras. As soon as I stepped through the gate, the cameras wouldn’t stop clicking. It kind of shocked me, but I kept a solemn face, placed the stone on the ground and then walked through the back gate. Being the only foreigner at this event, I am sure my photo was in many newspapers. When I told this story to my classes, a few people said that they saw me on TV. My 30 seconds of fame!

The next renewal of the shrine will be in 2033. I would like to attend this ceremony one more time, but I will be 85 years old.

I have hundreds of other special memories of living in Japan, but I would be writing for days or weeks and there are not enough pages in this book to hold them.

Below are photos of a newly built shrine at Ise Shrine and a pair of tabi similar to the ones I wore.