March 10th, 2011,
6:00 AM- My alarm rings. I wake up to turn off the pulsating rhythm and leap out of bed to ready myself for the monotonous routine that has been steering my life for a long while. Five weeks ago, I graduated from The University of Tokyo. I had so many plans structured in my head on how to celebrate my final liberation from the hectic and routined life of being a student. Going out with my friends, driving to wherever I yearn, celebrating my reclamation of life in discotheques, traveling, etc! That was all until my parents decided to send me off to my grandfather's place in Yamamoto (in the Miyagi prefecture) in order to "get in touch with my roots and nature". For the majority of my life, I have been an urbanite, so I have never been this sort of fervent naturalist in the vein of my mother? She grew up in this traditionally-architectured house during the 1960s and early-70s (before she started to work in Osaka during the mid-1970s) that lay on the verdant pavement before the golden beach and roaring waves of the Yamamoto coast. I was (and am) still pretty pissed about how she just swiftly thought it was cute to collapse all of the post-graduation plans that I had been drafting in my journal during those tens of painstaking cost-accounting classes since I was 22! Anyways, enough of my sulking...
I switch on the water heater before I go to remind sofu (grandfather) of his morning dose of medicine. If there is one thing that I like about this staycation of supposed "rediscovery", it is that I will get to spend more time with my grandpa. Sofu is really one of the most important people in my life. He is kind, caring, loving, understanding and just everything amazing! I feel safe, myself, and comfortable around him because he is just that void of judging. "Morning sofu! あなたはあなたの薬を服用しなければなりません(you have to take your medicine)." He wakes up and gives the smile of a joyous golden retriever, which never ceases to enhance my mood and give me energy to pursue the day. "Have you eaten your food yet, dear?" he asks in a sleepy tone after he swallows his pill. "Not yet! I'll just cook myself some tamago and rice before I get out to fish!" He gently nods before he slowly dozes off. I get up to do as I told sofu.
YOU ARE READING
Beyond The Waves
AventuraTomoko Hakashi is a 24 year old Japanese boy, who has visited his grandfather's place in the small coastal town of Yamamoto. He resents the monotonous routine which he was so earnestly waiting to get rid of after graduation, and hopes for something...
