When Akemi picked me up, I sat in the back with her girls. The first thing they did was put in a movie. I haven't seen many anime movies, so they decided that it would be a Ghibli day and we watched Totoro first. Akemi really believes in teaching her girls English early, so she only lets them watch their movies in English. This was nice for me because every time I have seen a Ghibli movie, it has always been in Japanese as part of a class or something. It is amazing how much more clear it is when you actually understand what everyone is saying!
Akemi gave each of us, the girls and me included, a little goody bag with an orange, rice crackers and some pretzels. At one point Haruna was sitting in her car seat playing with her orange like it was a ball. Every now and then she would look at it and contemplate a bit and then start tossing it from hand to hand again. Finally she mustered up the word and looked at me, then back at the orange and then extended her hand and simply said, "please." I smiled, giggled a bit and gladly helped her peal her orange. I knew from that point that I was really going to have fun with these girls. A little while later Natsumi followed suit and asked me for help to peal the orange. I was tickled at how much English the girls used with me of their own accord!
The ride to Mashiko was kind of long and then once we arrived we had to drive around for quite a while looking for parking. This pottery fair is very popular and a ton of people were attending. We finally got there and started to roam the streets sifting through the different booths of pottery and other handmade crafts. The first road we took wound its way up a big hill with many booths. It was a lot of fun to watch Natsumi walking around with Akemi and so delicately touching and examining each piece of pottery. Every so often she would find a piece she really liked and let out a cry of, "kawaii yo!" (so cute, you know!). Such interest in pottery was surprising for me to see from a 6 year old. As we walked along Haruna liked to ride in the stroller and eat candy. That girl was always eating candy; it became almost comical for me.
We reached the top of the hill and there was a very old style Japanese house with a thatched roof. This was a traditional place for making pottery, and along side the house were rows of kilns for firing the pottery. This little house had its own gated entry way that had been propped open for people wanting to see the process first hand. Just in front of the entry were three little tents with pottery. I went to one of the tents that was selling a lot of bright green pottery with words printed on the pieces. I was able to buy a vase for $5 that is a tall and slender cylinder. On it, it has the words printed, "Song for You." Given how much I really love to sing and the cheap price, I totally grabbed it up!
After I made my purchase, Natsumi looked me right in the eye and then ran through the entry way to the grounds of the house and kiln area. It was as though she didn't know how to say, "follow me," but she wanted me to understand. So I followed her through the entry and then she ran back and grabbed my hand and in Japanese said, "mi te, mi te!" (look, look!). She explored the grounds surrounding the houses and the dormant kilns all the while holding my hand and pulling me from place to place. Once she was content, we walked back out and met up with her mother again.
Soon after, we decided it was lunch time and went to grab some yaki soba and mochi from a street vendor. The girls can eat sooo much! I guess that is what happens when you have growing babies, they eat everything in sight. After lunch we took a new path to the main drag of the craft show. All the pottery was so cool to see. Much of it was incredibly expensive, but to think that it had all been made by hand was cool. I always like handmade things for their beauty and originality in every piece. As we were walking down the street Haruna would often come up and grab my pointer finger and swing our arms back and forth as we walked along. It really reminded me of when I would hold my Dad's hand when I was small. My hands were so small that he would always offer his finger and I would hold onto that while we walked along.
When she started to get tired, she rode in the stroller again. Sometimes I would wait with her while Natsumi and Akemi would search through all the pottery in a particular booth. My fingernails were still painted red from Halloween and Haruna thought it was the coolest thing. She would just sit there and play with my fingers looking at the color and rubbing the shiny red paint. And then she got an idea - she spread my fingers out flat on her lap and she counted my fingers. She would count from right to left in Japanese, and then she would go back the other way and count them in English. I was so tickled! I think children are so smart and have the potential to learn anything you want to teach them - learning for them is not the chore it is for us when we get older in school and college. They still love to discover and explore everything around them.
Later that afternoon we decided to head home. The girls wanted to watch the Pixar movie, Cars on the way home. They asked Akemi if they could watch in Japanese, but Akemi said, "We watch movies in English girls." On the way home they both fell asleep in the back seat. I really had a great day with Akemi and the girls. The pottery was really cool, but I think my favorite part was getting to know Natsumi and Haruna. I hope to see them again soon!
2 comments:
Ka-chow!! Kids are so much fun! Pottery, not so much. When you talked about peeling oranges for Haruna, it totally reminded me of peeling oranges for my niece, Malia! Problem was, her Lolo (grandfather) used to peel oranges for her, and he even peeled off the thin skin around the inner segments, so that is the only way she eats them now. I'm telling you, doing that is a real pain, and we're spoiling this kid too much!
When you let yourself go and have fun you are remarkable with small children. I am glad you had fun and appreciated the wonder of life through a small girl's eyes.
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