Recalling a Japanese house guest

Adventures in foreign lands 

Today’s story begins several decades ago and ends with last month’s adventure in a foreign port. Let us begin with the past. 

In the mid-1980s, an educational group sponsored a home-stay visit for Japanese students in Sonoma Valley. High school students from Japan were brought to our neighborhood to learn English in action. They were assigned to various family homes around the Valley, including right here in Glen Ellen. I am curious to here from other homestay families of that time. Write or call me. 

The students studied English each weekday morning at the Sonoma Community Center, with carpools helping to transport the Glen Ellen students to downtown Sonoma. 

Afternoon activities varied from excursions to Marine World, Morton’s Resort for swimming, Schulz Ice Skating Rink, and more. Host families were invited to join the afternoon festivities. 

Children of another mother

Although Sweetie and I had two young boys, Gabriel, a preschooler, and Schuyler, a schoolboy, we accepted a young teenage girl as our home stay student. Kasumi Kihara, was sheltered and innocent, well cared for by loving parents: a hardworking business-owner Papa, and a Mama who provided Kasumi with everything from a nutritious morning meal to a nicely made bed in a clean room. I suppose our lackadaisical home was a shock for this young lady. 

I wasn’t a mother to make our boys’ beds or to provide them with much more of a breakfast than oatmeal and oranges, and not until well after sunup. They thrived on that routine and quickly learned to prepare their own cold cereal and find fun and games until Mama fully awoke. For Kasumi, my hands-off approach must have seemed neglectful. 

Big sister from Japan

It was an interesting summer with Kasumi. Sky, as a young schoolboy, enjoying the freedom of summer vacation with treks up the road to Margie Everidge’s lively daycare, was oblivious to Kasumi Kihara sharing our house. 

Gabriel, on the other hand, was easily and quickly smitten. Kasumi brought him gifts: tiny toy trucks and books in Japanese, which she read to him, awkwardly translating into English. The two of them got along just fine, cuddled on the couch for hours, reading, laughing and communicating more in sign than words. Gabriel was happy to spend evenings listening to and playing with Kihar.

Like a motherless child

I have some fond memories of that busy summer. Kasumi occupied a single room in our house. She was slow to rise in the morning, and often so late for the carpool that I had to drive her to Sonoma. She idled in the bathroom, with long tubs and longer grooming routines. Her rumpled bed remained disordered all day, without a mother to make it for her, and she often left our house sans lunch. 

Still, our family enjoyed her visit enough to volunteer in subsequent years with the homestay students from Chernobyl and later, students from Mexico. Each experience was unique and unforgettable. 

Life changing friendship

But for young Gabriel, the romance and attention that he garnered from Kasumi permanently changed him. Long after our dear Japanese summer visitor returned home, Gabriel continued to be enamored of all things Japanese. When he started middle school (changing from his happy elementary years at Dunbar, to St. Francis in Sonoma) he vowed that he would learn Japanese, including the complicated Kanji symbols. 

In fact, his choice of high school was primarily based on where he could study Japanese. As it turned out, that was a New England prep school that offered not only Japanese language, but also a junior year homestay in Japan. That won Gabe’s attention, and he thrived at Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire for his four years there, including that long year in Japan. 

Young couple in Japan

He returned to Japan during his college years with the University of Chicago’s Japanese program at the Stanford Center in beautiful, imperial Kyoto, where he met his Sweetie Hilary (later to become his wife). Then, again, after college Gabriel and Hilary spent three years working and studying in Japan, both on the mainland and on Okinawa, where Gabe worked for the Okinawan government and Hilary taught primary school. On our first trip to Japan we visited them there.

This year, Gabriel and Hilary returned to Japan where Hilary is spending a year of her Ph.D. work through Cornell University at Sophia University in Tokyo studying foreign workers in technical fields. Gabe is working for a small Japanese nonprofit doing research on city planning. The happy couple continues to love Japan and enjoy living there. 

Old couple in Japan

We senior Crawfords, made our second trip to Japan this May. I still consider it a direct result of that long ago volunteer opportunity to be a homestay family for one dear teenage girl. 

Kasumi is now a lovely woman, a partner in her family’s stationery business and married to a stern-appearing Japanese businessman. We remain in contact, though these days mostly at holidays, when we exchange newsy letters and small gifts. 

On our first visit to Japan, we traveled extensively, hitting all of the beautiful tourists spots over a month or so. This May, our trip was much shorter and much more confined. We avoided almost all touristy adventures, settling instead in a tiny hotel, in the Hatagaya neighborhood of Tokyo. 

Best Ever Cherry Blossom Hotel

Our 10-day stay at the Sakura Hotel Hatagaya was arranged by our son, Gabriel, who speaks both fluent Japanese and a moderate amount of Arabic, both of which came in handy at the Sakura, (which in English means Cherry Blossom). More like a hostel than a hotel, the Sakura claims to be the only Muslim hotel in Tokyo. It offers halal meals on demand, features a Muslim prayer room, and sports a hand-made yellow cardboard sign tacked on the ceiling pointing the way to Mecca. 

We loved the little Sakura, a crossroads of the world, with happy traveling folks from around the globe. It was as common to see Burka-clad women in the downstairs common room, as it was to see foreign teens in blue jeans and tourist T-shirts. We were never the oldest couple in the common room, nor were we nearly the most exotic. We met friends from around the world, both Muslim and not. It was an eye-opening adventure for both Sweetie and me, who are not accustomed to hobnobbing with such an eclectic group of foreigners. 

We quickly learned that our fellow travelers, Muslims and otherwise, were not unlike folks we know in our own home Valley: friendly, open, and as curious about us as we were about them. 

Sharing commons

Our room was a simple and tiny bed-sized chamber with an elevated bathroom (that entailed a difficult step up) and no closet. Yet the entire downstairs common room was open 24 hours and quickly became our friendly go-to place to share a meal, enjoy afternoon coffee, watch television, use computers and even work. I wrote one week’s column sitting at a tiny table surrounded by foreign-speaking strangers, who soon became friends. Eager to learn about Sonoma and our small town newspaper and my role as a columnist for our even smaller village of Glen Ellen, I happily answered questions and voiced some of my own. I now have a long list of potential visitors to Creekbottom in Glen Ellen. Folks from around the world are planning to visit our little Valley. At least one potential visitor, a staff member at the Sakura, is looking forward to experiencing a Giants baseball game, with a ferry ride included. (Right Ken?)

All you can eat for 24 hours

While the common room was a great resting spot between excursions in the neighborhood, and a place of lively conversation for jet-lagged insomniacs, it was also always our first morning stop. A great breakfast of coffee, tea, bread, jam and vegetable soup was offered every morning for the meager fee of 365 yen, about $3. It was all one could eat and continued throughout the morning. Thus, it was a popular gathering spot for everyone and the perfect place to share plans and adventures with other travelers. In my next column, I’ll share our daily routine in this small, typical Japanese neighborhood, that quickly felt like “home” for these two weary American travelers.

Heartfelt shout-outs

For now, I simply want to give a grand shout-out and heartfelt thank you to the young and energetic staff at the Tokyo Sakura Hotel Hatagaya. Ken Sato, an endearing young man, whose mother is from Arkansas and father from Japan. He was mostly raised in Tokyo with frequent jaunts to the American South. His friendly open manner made us feel entirely comfortable from the get-go. He’s the gentleman featured in the attached photo. Alongside Ken, is Kei Yonekawa, a delightful and charming young woman, who can whip up the best buckwheat crepe I’ve ever had, with a soft-boiled egg and tangy Swiss cheese atop. Kei greeted us most mornings with fresh, hot coffee and a broad and engaging smile, again, making us feel fully at home. 

We also can’t forget the tender care and attention of Mohamed Ibrahim, a young Egyptian man who managed the downstairs common room, making sure everyone was happy and comfortable. Then there was Yuki Jimbo, Kuzusa Adachi and others; an entirely welcoming staff, all young. We never saw any staff over 40, and yet the hotel ran efficiently, happily, and clean throughout. At a bargain price of barely $100 a night, it was almost cheaper than the Sonoma Valley kennel where we boarded our dogs. 

So ends my brief introduction to the Sakura Hotel Hatagaya of Tokyo. I’ll share more in my next column, including our compelling reason for a second visit to Japan. 

Meanwhile, I hope you celebrate a safe and Happy Fourth of July. 

The Folks in Glen Ellen column also appears online. Look for my column on the Index-Tribune website sonomanews.com under the category Lifestyle. Click on Sylvia Crawford for current and old columns. Want to see your own name in the news? Call or write me at 996-5995 or P.O. Box 518, GE 95442. Or email me at Creekbottom@earthlink.net. Glen Ellen chatter rarely requires timeliness; however, if your news does, please be sure to contact me at least three weeks before your desired publication date.