Momiji – Autumn Leaves

Hakone Cablecar

The leaves are changing here ... the Ginko's are turning from a grass green to a luscious banana yellow, the maples are making their shift towards a brilliant crimson red. Fall is my favorite season, the crisp air, the gorgeous blue skys, the vivid colors of the leaves. 
On Veterans Day we took advantage of no school and no work and headed to Hakone to view the Fall foliage. We took the cablecar up the mountain and then the ropeway across and down to the lake. We could see Mt. Fuji in the distance and the changing leaves dotted the landscape. It was a beautiful Fall day – just over a year since the last time we made it to Hakone. Like the leaves changing, marking another season passing by, we all tried to take in the day - not knowing yet what the Navy has in store for us. Each day here is a gift.
Shift to yesterday. Three Tuesdays a month I drive about 20 minutes to Zushi for an English Conversation Class. My students are wonderful. All are retired although some still do a bit of consulting and it is a nice mix - 12 students, split evenly between male and female. The second half of the lesson each student has an opportunity to speak - this could be a prepared essay or something off the top of their heads. I never know what I'm going to hear. Sometimes it's hysterically funny when my English ears cannot quite make the leap to a Japanese word - like when one of my students was speaking about Sumo. I asked him to repeat it several times - still not understanding, the entire class trying to help me out, I finally said spell it for me. Well, duh ... I cracked up and said in English we pronounce it "sue-mo" but apparently in Japanese it's pronounced "smo." They amaze me by their worldliness – I swear they know more about what's going on in the United States than I do, and they remind me that I need to expand my horizons - every day. Sometimes though the gifts I receive from them are more simple - maybe they do not realize it, but everything they share with me, is a moment, a piece of knowledge that enriches my life. And so, yesterday I received a special gift from my students in Zushi. Saita-san, quiet, elegant, a former English teacher (yes, that intimidates me) shared with me that her 10-year-old granddaughter came to her house for a visit and asked her to teach her the Japanese song, Momiji. This is a traditional Japanese song about the Fall that most Japanese children learn at an early age. Saita-san took the time to translate the words from Japanese to English for me so that I would understand the song and then as I'm writing this down there is A LOT of discussion back and forth in Japanese and suddenly Saita-san in a clear alto begins to sing, and the others join in acapella, a beautiful mixture of male and female voices singing me a song from their childhood. It was simple, it was impromptu, it was poignant and it was such a gift. I will treasure that moment long after I've returned to the U.S. Last night, after finding the link below, I was sitting in the living room and I could hear my own children playing this song over and over again. It was a beautiful moment, a moment I realized that because Saita-san had shared something personal, my children were learning yet another aspect of Japanese culture, it was inspiring.

Sunset on the mountains, the fall trees aglow,
Brilliant shades of autumn - crimson red, tan, yellow.
Maple leaves and ivy adorning the tall pine trees

Weave a beautiful pattern here at the foot of the mountains.