Asuka was quirky and funny and she fit right in with the family. On her first trip to San Francisco she chased seagulls on the pier and sang Christmas carols at the top of her lungs even though it was the middle of summer. She got the whole family to sing along, “Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way…”
She noticed everything and everybody as she danced her way down Pier 49. She ran ahead and stopped short spreading her legs wide and looking back at Kristie and Jack through her open legs with her long black hair dangling on the ground below. They all laughed at her antics.
This was going to be a good summer for the kids who were now in their teens. The Japanese exchange would introduce the whole family to a culture they came to admire and adopt. At some point Asuka decided to chop all that thick beautiful hair off into a short less attractive spikey page boy. It was just too much to take care of and she had to wash it every day.
Asuka loved to shop and she was amazed at Costco. “Wow!” she exclaimed as they walked down the aisles. She began putting things in the cart: a case of Top Ramen, two large bottles of mouth wash, a case of canned soups, a giant bundle of toilet paper, tissue, paper towels, toothpaste, a dozen tooth brushes, shampoo and rinse, a fifty pound sack of rice, and on and on.
“Where is all of this going to go?” Kristie asked, knowing full well that the small cabin they were all sharing would not accommodate storage of all these items.
“Don’t worry, Don Buri,” Asuka said humorously. She had plans to stack it all in her small room. Kristie rarely ventured down the stairs into her space, but when she did, she was not surprised to see every wall lined with the Costco purchases. There was barely room for her bed squeezed in between the stacks or Ramen, soups, and toilet paper.
“Are you saving up for the end of the world?” Kristie wondered. Asuka shrugged and installed a giant rice cooker on the counter in the small kitchen. It was like having a second washing machine… only for rice.
The two women talked for hours about every little thing. They exchanged stories about culture, cooking, politics, philosophy, history, bowing, respect, and even sexual practices and how each topic was different or the same in each culture. Kristie ended up learning all the words for food and sex. Would you expect anything else from her? She learned that “skibby” meant “horny” and “ching ching nami nami” meant “suck my dick?” “Chi chi’s” meant “titties.”
Kristie asked her quite seriously about World War II, “Do you think the war could have ended without the terrible bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?”
“No, you had to do it…” Asuka said quietly but firmly. “The war would have never ended without it.” They were both silent for sometime out of respect for the horror of it all.
They had many evenings of sharing recipes and cooking styles, eating together and talking of politics and history; Minemoto versus Thomas Jefferson, and countless little details about eating, “I daki mas” (I am eating now) and bowing (A low bow versus a short head nod, where the hands are placed, etc.) The whole family got so used to bowing for every little thing that it became part of a life long practice. A little head nod to the postman and a low bow with hands to the side out of respect for their favorite sushi chef.
They planned a party for the other Japanese exchange students. It was to be a “Japanican” Party. All the girls gathered in the little cabin and cooked up a big pot of adashi sushi. There was chips and dip, little tea sandwiches, sodas and tea, and some sweet cookies and cake.
The girls planned to try on the fancy dresses that American girls wear to the prom. There were many different styles: a black and green lace dress with a pouf skirt, a pink organza, a short black cocktail dress, a tangerine taffeta number with a twirly skirt, a long elegant yellow chiffon, a teal handkerchief dress… None of the dresses fit the small Japanese girls and they all had to be pinned up in the back. One after the other, they posed for the photos they would take home to show off their American style.
Asuka was such a nutty little thing, so happy to be in the USA … a dream come true. When she got back to Japan, she spent all her free time hanging out in front of the American Navy base in Atsugi waiting for an invitation to party with any one of the sailors stationed there. Eventually some of the guys would wander back into the base escorting the waiting girls into their barracks.
It wasn’t formally allowed, but everyone did it. The guys developed a system for hiding the girls in their lockers or under their bunks in case of a room inspection. There were four guys to a room and they all traded girls until they found one they liked. There were quite a few marriages crafted out of these initial sexual alliances.
Asuka herself was handed off from one guy to the next until she settled in on a small blond, blue eyed cutie who took her home after his tour was up. “Kwai,” she said explaining that he was so cute, she couldn’t resist him.
Who could blame them? Women have been trying to make their way since Eve was fashioned out of Adam’s rib. What brave young women to venture out into a foreign land with foreign people and foreign ways. Pioneers all. God Bless America.
(First published 2/7/13)
