Top Story: 15.April 2007
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday..
Sundays in Japan are pleasant time. The busy week in work has came to an end, and people have finally time for themselves and for their families. Or do they? Here I write three fictional stories of three households in Japan, and how they spend their first day of the week. (All stories in this page are fictional. Any resembles to actual persons is purely coincidental.)
Watanabe is a family of two children, living in Nara city. Michiko Watanabe (42) is a housewife. Her husband Toshio (44) works in Nissan Automobile. The daughter of Watanabe, Kumiko, is a highschool student, and the son Tetsuo just got graduated from University of Nara. He does boxing.
In the morning, Michiko makes a breakfast which whole family attends. (Sunday is the only day when they eat bacon for breakfast and coffee.) No Chagayu (Tea Gruel) for Sunday! The father is wearing his golf trousers and his mind is already in the golf course, while he munches away his toast. He really likes golf and possess a very expensive set of golf clubs. Michiko is watching a morning TV show which tells about food markets in Nara. She is perhaps the most passionate Narazuke Pickles connoisseur of Japan. Tetsuo is already doing his workout in gym, and probably won't show up until late at night.
After breakfast, Michiko opens up windows and airs futons, and then begins the massive vacuum cleaning. Then, cleaning ofuro with powder soap. The plants and trees in her tiny garden also need watering. Michiko and Kumiko have tradition to go to Sunday shopping in nearby Welcia. Kumiko drives a small and convenient Mitsubishi. She never liked Nissan (but Tetsu has his customized Skyline). They purchase the entire week's foods almost at once, and Kumiko helps her mother cheerfully. It seems these two women really love shopping for groceries.
In afternoon, Michiko takes the futons back inside the house, tidy up the rooms, and takes the rice out from rice cooker, wrapping it into small packets. She decides to make few onigiri from leftover rice, with umeboshi and all. In afternoon Kumiko goes out with her friends, and Michiko is left alone. Outside she can hear cheerfull sounds of children going to play baseball in the field nearby. Wind moves the curtains of the livingroom gently. A car passes by, selling clothes drying poles.
She decides to practise her hand for sketching. This time she draws a vase with tulips. But it doesn't go well. She gives up sooner than she thought. She knows well that neither his husband, daughter or son will appear until late at night. So she thinks to call her neighbor housewives to come over, and have the latest gossip. But no, she doesn't feel like it. Not today. Sipping her husband's whiskey, she flips the pages of her favorite Dostoyevski novel and then takes a nap in afternoon, leaving the TV on.
Akiko Yamada (28) is a single, graphic designer in Nishi-Ogikubo, Tokyo. Her family lives in Hokkaido, small town called Furano. She moved to Tokyo three years ago. She rents a small apartment in Tokyo, just large enough to lay out her futon (which she occasionally airs in weekends) and her iMac. She listens her father's LP collection which she got from him when she moved to Tokyo. She doesn't visit Hokkaido much because it is too expensive to travel.
She used to have boyfriend. They used to go to beach together with his car every Sunday and eat lunch together, watching the surfers. But when she discovered that he was still seeing his ex girlfriend, she suddenly felt uninterested of spending time with him. After that she haven't kept touch with him.
Her typical Sunday starts late. She usually sleeps until eleven, and then packs a pocket size novel or two, and her iPod into her bag, and go to Excelsior coffeeshop. There she eats her breakfast while reading her favorite Tolstoy's novels. In afternoon she would go to shopping in Ginza, or to see a film. She always spends her Sunday alone.
In the evening she usually cooks, perhaps Japanese curry or tempura. After washing her dishes, she would catch up her design work, and then take a bath. In her tiny bath she would sometimes remember her days back there in Hokkaido, her old school friends or parents.
Kenji Nishimura (72) spends his sunday usually with his room mates in St.Luke's International Hospital (Seiroka). The same hospital in where the Aum Shinrikyo members were treated. He suffers from lung cancer. The doctors have given up treating him, because of his request.
He has two children, both married now. They used to visit him in Sundays but their visits have started become less frequent. Sometimes he shares his obento box with his roommates as he finds his apetite fleeting. He used to enjoy eating almost any foods, but nowadays a rice ball is enough to satisfy him. He cannot drink coffee, only a very mild tea, or sometimes only hot water.
He begins his Sunday with his route to cafeteria, where he reads newspaper. He reads newspaper only on Sunday. He has always been like that, he cannot explain why. After reading newspaper, he takes a brief walk just outside the hospital doors, even though nurses don't like it. In afternoon it is time for him to take his medicine, and after that he usually sleeps because the medicines make him sleep. After the time of taking medicines, his section of hospital becomes dead silent, as if all sounds were sucked out.
The visiting time is over at four a clock on Sunday. If his family don't come until that time, he knows he can relax rest of the day. In evening he plays cards with his room mates, or listens his portable marine radio. Weather forecasts.
