When I arrived at Tokyo airport I did not know who would be there to meet me. It turned out to be Tomiko, a CARP member I had not met before. She treated me to a coffee and cake, and said she remembered me from America. We took the bus to Tokyo and arrived at the Takaha building at 8:30 PM. It was Friday September 5th, 1986.
Saturday morning I went with the CARP Team to the Shibuya Station, and then went off by myself, to struggle with the subways to the Ginza district. It was raining. I stopped in Hibuya Park where are a number of high school girls gathered a fountain and photographed them, as well as a sumo wrestler sitting on a bench talking to a lady. Photographed boys fishing in a pond, and a young girl combing her hair with a Mickey Mouse mirror. Took pictures of woman under umbrellas, and the rain on the streets. I was using 400 Fuji chrome film; the Japanese guy I met was using 400 Kodak Ektachrome. The film that comes from the other side of the world is always more colorful.
Five o'clock Sunday morning I did pledge in Korean with the J-CARP members. We drove to where a large contingent of CARPies had morning service. Tomoko translated for me. After the service I talked briefly to Seiko Hatano from Ocean Sunrise. We met at the CARP convention in New York.
Inamuru, the vice president of J-CARP, took a few of us out to brunch. I told him that I used to write Haiku's when I was in high school, although I didn't believe the artistic calligraphy could be translated adequately. He took me to a department store and bought me a blank journal and a fancy fountain pen.
Tomoko helped me find my way to Hara Juku park where young people "Dance like the Fifties." I took some pictures then went across the overpass to the shopping district. I saw the Smiling Queens enter the Peppermint Boutique and photographed them. Then I walked to Shibuya Station, not knowing how far it was.
Inamuru was worried about me on Monday, seeing that I was sightseeing before I met up with my wife. He thought something might happen to me and suggested that I go to Shibuya to see the movie La Puta. I was too late for that movie and saw something else. I had no idea what the film was about.
After some window shopping I went to the Unification Church to meet Yumiko Karada, the girl we met in San Francisco and took to the Lake Tahoe workshop. She told me that after she flew with Dr. Suek from Lake Tahoe, she stayed a day with Mr. Fuji in LA. Since flying back to Japan she'd been witnessing out of a video center. Tomiko, who had been at the same Lake Tahoe workshop, suggested that I look her up. Yumiko was dressed like the other girls in the church; a pastel peach dress and white blouse. We took a long walk to Asakura where I bought a paper doll for my mother.
In the evening I returned to the CARP center and washed my clothes. The clothes were still wet the next morning when I got a message that Yoshiko had called, that I was to meet her at 9 a.m. in front of the Police Station at Shibuya Station. Yoshiko was upset when I arrived, because I had not yet validated my Japan Rail pass. She had called me in America and told me to make sure that I "change it." But she didn't tell me what to change it to.
We were originally supposed to meet at 2 pm on the ninth, but I got a garbled message about baggage. The message was to just bring stuff for an overnight stay, but by the time I couldn't make out what the person said, and brought all my baggage instead.
My ticket couldn't be validated until 10 am, which the time when the only Shinkasen that could get us to Tokushima in time was scheduled to leave. Yoshiko wanted me to pay $200.00 for a train ticket to take that train, when I already had paid for a Japan Rail pass. She called her sister and found that we could save a lot of money by going to Osaka and taking the ferry, so we did that.
Throughout the train ride Yoshiko was quiet and angry with me for having all my baggage and not getting my ticket validated. She was also upset that I had been in Japan for about a week, instead of just the two days as she had thought. She had been in Japan for almost a month. But I had raised the money for the trip myself, and didn't want to come all the way to the other side of the world without seeing a few sights.
Finally on the ferry, just before reaching land, Yoshiko changed to a beige colored dress and I donned my suit. She was paranoid that her parents will have a bad impression of me just because I didn't t have a tie clip. "Everyone will be looking at you and you're not wearing a tie clip." I went to the back deck, and saw an elderly lady looking into the distance. There were many boats on the dark gray horizon.
It was raining when Hiroko took us to drop our luggage at the hotel, then to another place, which looked like the courtyard of an old Japanese building. I had no idea what kind of place it is, until we got inside. It turned out to be a very posh old traditional style Japanese restaurant. At first I thought the Katayama's owned a palace, but if so, why did I leave our luggage at a hotel? A hostess in a Kimono offered us slippers. It was the most lavish restaurant that I'd ever been to. The maitre de showed us the Japanese garden while some light was still left in the evening.
The Katayama's arrived; we bowed and made our salutations. Her father shook my hand and we both bowed. "Hagimamaste, Stefan des," I said. Her father and mother, sister Hiroko and husband, as well as her other sister, Akiko, her husband and baby were there.
Yoshiko's uncle, Masaaki F, MD, who studied medicine in Texas joined us. He spoke in English to me, addressing me as Mr. Stefan. "Mr. Stefan, what University did you graduate from?" Yoshiko had instructed me to say the University of Toronto, with a major in English. That statement had some truth to it. I had actually finished a pre-university English course at Woodsworth College the winter before I left for California.
The dinner was lavish; course after course of the finest Japanese cuisine. Yoshiko's father sat opposite me. After the first "Kempe" he refilled my glass with beer, then several times I filled his. He kept gesturing me to drink, but I would just take one small gulp, each time, because Unification Church members usually don't drink. Since it would have been ungracious not to accept, I made an exception. "Mr. Stefan, drink some more, it will make you relax."
They asked about my profession, so I told them I was a photographer. They were concerned about how we would be able to support children. "Mr. Stefan, how is your mother's health?" I told the uncle that she was 61 and had a stroke ten years ago, but had recovered well. I was asked how many brothers and sisters I had. "Mr. Stefan, I love my niece very much, and her family loves her too, and want to make sure that you will take good care of her." Then her father extended his hand to shake mine. We took a group picture. Finally, Akiko and her husband gave us a ride to Tokyo Inn. It had been a month since Yoshiko had left America to visit Japan.
We woke up at the Tokyo Inn in Tokushima, had breakfast, then met Hariko, Yoshiko's sister, and her five year old boy. He was playing with the red ‘57 Chevy and the Mickey Mouse doll that we had given him. She took us sightseeing to Naruto Bridge; where we took a boat to view the whirlpools. It was drizzling most of the time, but I knew the gray would make the colors jump out of the pictures I took. We went up a mountain, but it was too foggy to see much. Then we had lunch at a traditional style Japanese restaurant.
I wanted to photograph a pink McDonald's restaurant that I'd seen on the way so they drove me to an ordinary one. But I didn't say I meant the other one, the pink McDonald's Restaurant. It must have been strange enough for that I want to photograph McDonald's, let alone a cute little pink one. We went into the regular McDonalds' and Hirkoko practiced at the end how to say, "Take care of Yoshiko," in English, then finally got it right.
Yoshiko reminded me to say "Thank you," before I left.
We stayed at a Church Center in Osaka. At morning service I gave a brief introduction. Yoshiko translated. Then we visited the Shiawasa Building, which was owned by the Church. Mrs. Fukiwara showed us around. We stopped at the Osaka castle and had an ice dish with sweet beans. On our way Mrs. Fujiwara saw an elderly Western couple ahead who were holding hands, and asked, "Do you hold hands?" I answered by offering my hand to Yoshiko. She didn't take it. Lunch was crab and lobster at Carnival plaza. The front part of the restaurant had a ceiling with stars and sunset with simulated rain. Radio controlled boats floated in a little pool. We went to the temples of Kyoto but arrived late in the afternoon, too late to get in to the biggest temple. So we drove around and looked at some lesser temples. Throughout the day we had a communication problem, because I wasn't greeting people the right way. My bows were awkward and the one phrase that I'd learned in Japanese wasn't good enough.
Friday I went on with a tour bus, after we stayed the night in Atami. Yoshiko had some other things to do. It rained all afternoon. I took pictures of people holding umbrellas in the drizzle, and had some one take my picture in front of a Buddha statue. The tour went to about a dozen temples. It was very rainy. I looked down a number of steps and saw two schoolgirls in plaid uniforms, both taking pictures at the same time. I was about take a photograph when the tour guide said, "This is a tour — you can't hold us up by taking pictures all the time."
I got back to the dog statue in Shibuya a little late for our 6:30 rendezvous. Yoshsiko had a friend with her and the three of us went to a restaurant for Chinese food. We picked up our luggage, which was in a locker and went to a dormitory where members lodged at a cheap price.
The next day I wore my tan suit as we went on a whirlwind tour of Tokyo. One young man had arranged the tour; another drove us around. We started with a tour of the Unification Church in Tokyo; some Happy Group offices and Seppai Nippon, the newspaper. We went to the place where marble vases are sold, and I was not allowed to photograph the place. Miniature temples and marble vases that would cost a fortune were showcased in alcoves around the perimeter. Outside the office one brother sat watching everything. Tight security. We stopped at some Happy Group Offices, Danjobi, and Christian Bernard. We stopped in the Ginza district at a place where furs sold for forty grand. They put on a fashion video for me and I slept through it. Next door there was an art gallery. Then we took a long drive to a computer company where they made Wakom tablets. We visited a restaurant with a huge fish tank behind a counter. The fish I had was skewered on a stick in front of me, with its sides scraped off. The chef gave the fish a little flick with his finger and the fish wiggled. I guess he wanted to impress the barbarian in me, that the fish I was eating was alive, and watching me. When we returned to Shibuya I went to the dormitory and Yoshiko went somewhere else.
Sunday we met early at the dog statue; she was with a sister named Ria. We went to the Tokyo tower to the observation tower and saw three ladies in traditional kimonos with an elderly man in formal attire. I wanted to get a shot of them looking at modern day Japan through a telescope.
After taking me to buy souvenirs Yoshiko suggested I see a movie, while she and her friend went to pick up her baggage. I sat in the lobby waiting for the movie and wrote in my journal.
We had breakfast in our room; another elaborate meal. The maid, who was a Church member, asked us many questions. She had worked for the Church in America in 1983. The room was traditional Japanese with a beautiful view of the ocean. I took a couple pictures of our silhouette drinking tea, for posterity. I shot 22 rolls of film altogether. After breakfast the maid showed us the room that True Mother had stayed in recently.
Yoshiko bought some souvenirs in the gift shop as well as some treats for our hosts at the next stop. She told me that her father gave her $500.00 to pay for our hotel room. We took a cab to the station. Yoshiko said that I had two minutes to take pictures; I wanted a shot of the gray fading mountains in the distance. I got the picture and we boarded a train. On our last day we packed, and stopped in at the Japanese nursery where she had once worked before taking our flight home.
BEYOND OUR GALAXY
I went to the tower and I saw the Smiling Queen
She was looking up at the sky
Standing at the spyglass in a dress of gold
With her man in black tie
You may think the stars are brighter
Just beyond our galaxy
I don't know I've Never been there
'Cept in flights of fantasy
The man in black tie and the Smiling Queen
They were dressed in traditional attire
While most people turned the spyglass down
Their aspirations were higher
"Take a photo of that couple
As they're looking for the star"
"I regret I left my Camera
On the dashboard of the car"
And so the photo that I meant to take
Was the old world looking at the new
But they weren't looking at a modern skyline
They were waiting for the stars to shine through
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