Gateway to the World

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I look at the transport map at Nippori Station to work out how much my ticket will be to Yokohama. It’s all in Japanese and the problem is I don’t recognise any kanji for Yokohama. With a lot of Japanese names, I can recognise at least one of the kanji, as they have common elements often. Tokyo for instance is made up of two kanji, ‘to’ meaning ‘east’, and ‘kyo’ meaning ‘capital’, so Tokyo means ‘Eastern Capital’. (Beijing, by the way, means ‘Northern Capital’.) With Mito, I have no idea what the kanji for ‘to’ means, but the ‘mi’ part means ‘water’, which makes the complete name easy to recognise. I have a train map, but as the names are all in Roman script, it isn’t much use matching the stations up. I go to the ticket barrier where there is always a member of staff, and I ask them how much a ticket is to Yokohama. I trot back to the machine to buy a ticket for that amount.

I meet up with Tanaka-san and Sakamoto-san at a station further down the line, Shinagawa. I can recognise that name on a map (at the stations it’s no problem as the names appear in Roman script as well as kanji) as although I don’t know what ‘shina’ means, I know that ‘gawa’ means ‘river’, for which I know the kanji. On the train to Yokohama, they explain that ‘yoko’ means ‘side’, and ‘hama’ means ‘beach’. I’ve never been to Yokohama before. I looked it up last night in my Lonely Planet guidebook. It has a population of 3,655,000, is 20 minutes by train from Tokyo, and has had many foreigners living there since the American fleet under Commodore Matthew Perry arrived off the coast to persuade Japan to open to foreign trade after more than two centuries of little contact with other countries. It is now Japan’s largest port.

We actually get off at the station after Yokohama, Sakuragicho. Ironically I would have recognised that station on the map, as the ‘sakura’ part is the same ‘sakura’ meaning ‘cherry tree/blossom’ and the ‘gi’ part means ‘tree’. I show my ticket at the ticket barrier and pay the difference in the fare. Ayako-san is waiting for us beyond the ticket barrier.

I can see why they all love Yokohama. It has such flair and is so varied. There’s a slight chill in the air as a breeze is coming off the sea and the cherry blossom is only just coming into flower and so is not quite as advanced as Tokyo. We walk round some converted old brick warehouses, divided into small shops. There is a tantalising smell of ground coffee as we pass a section selling all different varieties, and then a strong mixture of scents fill the air. I look, and realise with surprise that it’s ‘Lush’, a beauty company from the UK.

In the middle of writing that last sentence, sitting on my futon, my back against the wall, it all started shaking. I could feel the vibrations on my back from the wall, and from the futon, and looking up, I could see the pull on the ceiling overhead light starting to sway. I felt quite secure in my little world in this ryokan, seeing how well the buildings have stood up to the earthquakes, but it does feel like being on a boat. I experienced earthquakes when we used to live in Nakasugaya, but never a really large one, and certainly nothing like the one on 11th March. I remember Tanaka-san’s description today, that sometimes she felt that there was an earthquake even when there wasn’t, as it’s like when you get off a boat, and it still seems as if it’s moving. But you just feel, she said, ‘Oh, it’s another earthquake’. They’ve been having regular aftershocks ever since the massive earthquake in Ibaraki, and some of them have been quite powerful ones.

We climb up a steep hill to Yamate (‘yama’ is mountain, ‘te’ is ‘hand’), the area of Yokohama which is the traditional foreigners quarter. It must be cooler here in the summer when it’s so hot and humid as it’s on a ridge and must catch the breeze. We stop to look at the view, over the Foreigners Cemetery. I notice the inscriptions on the gravestones immediately before us – one in Italian, one in French, and one in English for the Japanese wife of someone with an English name. Walking along the ridge, we pass traditional old villas, church after church, and two international schools. Girls in school uniform walk past – their skirts are a tartan pattern. Two small boys speaking English stop to cross the road. I can see why foreigners have always liked living here.

On the way back to Nippori, I get off two stops earlier at Ueno. There is a park here, Ueno Koen, which is very famous for its cherry blossom. I walk down the avenue, the trees are in full bloom, ‘mankai’. It’s around six o’clock and people are coming here from work. I walk to another part of the park. There are some stalls here, and I buy a portion of ‘okonomiyaki’ for 500 yen, a Japanese style savoury pancake. As I eat it, all the conversations of the last few days swim in my head, of what my friends have thought and what other people have been thinking....You can now subscribe to a service on your mobile phone which sounds an alarm a few seconds before an earthquake.......Japanese people are particularly nervous of radiation because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.......Those whose husbands are scientists have been more reassured in the current circumstances.....Government pronouncements about it being ‘all right’ now, don’t help as people are worried about what will happen in the future.......Some people have been better able to cope with all the stress than others.......How lucky we are compared with those in the tsunami region.

It’s dark when I finish and I wander back through the avenue with the sakura. The cherry trees aren’t illuminated as they would be normally, but you can still see their beauty. The avenue is lined on both sides with individual squares of blue plastic sheeting. The groups are all mostly young people, and I see lots of beer and sake containers. I think there will be some party atmosphere tonight, but it’s been a stressful time for everyone since 11th March.

I look through the Japan Times tonight. On the front page there is a photo of new first graders, their heads bowed, offering a prayer for pupils who died in the tsunami, during the entrance ceremony at a school in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture. The new school year started yesterday. Next to it is an article saying that the number of foreign nationals entering Japan at Narita is down 75 percent from the level of March last year, and in Osaka it’s down 50%!,(MISSING) which has taken a toll on the tourism and retail sectors.

I check on the internet the Foreign Office advice for travel to Japan. They’ve just changed it today:

This advice has been updated. We are no longer advising against all but essential travel to Tokyo. We continue to advise against all but essential travel to those areas north east of Tokyo most directly affected by the earthquake and the tsunami. These areas continue to suffer disruptions to residential, business and transport infrastructure and you may wish to consult local contacts before travelling........The Japanese authorities continue to provide regular updates on developments at Fukushima. This includes actions being taken to stabilise the reactor units at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and to minimise the release of radioactive material into the local environment. We recognise that at times a controlled release may be necessary but it does not affect the overall assessment in this Travel Advice. Although the situation at Fukushima will remain of concern for some time, the risks are gradually declining as the reactors cool and as facilities to stabilise them are established.

I look on the Asahi website to see whether the earthquake I felt has appeared on it. It was a strong 6 on the Shindo scale in Fukushima (the Shindo scale is a Japanese scale which measures the degree of shaking particular to that place). That is a very big one. Poor people of Fukushima. The earth does not come to rest.

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