Aki Toku

Rie’s mother grew up on the next island down, Kakeroma, in the village of Aki Toku. One day, Rie and I drove about an hour to the town where she was born, Setouchi. From there, we took a 20 minute ferry to Kakeroma. On the ferry we ran into a cousin and took her to her home in Aki Toku. We visited Rie’s great-aunt for lunch and ran into some more uncles and cousins around town.

Aki Toku is another great small fishing and farming village. In southern Japan, everybody is worried about the poisonous Habu snake. In small villages like Aki Toku, they take 5-foot tall sticks and paint one end yellow for visibility. About every 100 feet throughout the village is a Habu stick. So, if you are ever walking home at night and see a snake, you can grab a stick and clear the path.

My last visit to Japan was for the funeral of Rie’s grandmother Yaeko. After she passed away, they put her in a glass coffin with dry ice and placed her in the living room. After a few days, a funeral was held at the house. Only a few people could fit inside. Most people had to listen to the speakers set up outside. After the funeral, we drove up to the crematorium. Grandma Yaeko was placed inside and Taakaki pushed the button to fire up the furnace. We all ate lunch and walked around until the process was complete. Then we carefully place the bones into a special container. We took the container down to Aki Toku and placed it in the family grave. The cemetery is in a nice place – along a stream, next to the jungle, and overlooking the ocean. Grandma Yaeko’s garden in the hills is not far away.

During our trip to Aki Toku last week, Rie and I cleaned the grave and lit incense. We also visited a few other graves of Rie’s family members. Rie wanted some of her old pictures from Grandma Yaeko’s house. Nobody lives there now and it is starting to fall apart. We had to be careful on the soggy floor, but we were able to find lots of pictures of Rie as a little girl. I learned that Rie had the unfortunate timing of going to middle school during the few years that the required PE shorts for girls consisted of very tight and very short shorts.