サイトマップ
各課のご案内
施設のご案内
お問い合わせ
Okaeri Short Essays
The town of Mikawa developed by the Tedori River Estuary, receiving the blessings from Mt. Hakusan and the river.
Mikawa is famous for the Okaeri Festival, which originally welcomed sailors returning from sea. The word okaeri means "welcome back" or "welcome home". Here you can find a collection of short essays about okaeri. You will also find photos looking over the past and present of Mikawa.
"To us, the word okaeri is very important. This warm word lives on in various ways in Mikawa."
1: Mother on a Rainy Night
My mother began to develop dementia when she was 80 years old. There were times that she would leave and forget how to come back, but as her legs and hips grew weak her adventures came to a stop. That is, except for the nights that it rained, when she would grab an umbrella and walk to the nearby train station. Even if my wife or children tried to stop her she would not listen.
When I was young, I used to work at a company along the railroad, and on rainy evenings my mother would meet me at the local station with an umbrella in hand. That son, now long since retired, is still a young man in his mother's head. My wife would always follow after her, and at times would be waiting over an hour at the station.
On one rainy day, I decided to follow instead, and bought a ticket to enter the platform. I left the station, pretending to be a part of the departing crowd, and when my mother saw me her face lit up.
"Welcome home" (Okaeri) she said, passing me an umbrella. While my mother is no longer with me, I will always remember the love and warmth in her "Okaeri" that greeted me every rainy night at the station.
2: Proposal
"I'll walk from my house to yours to meet you"
During the last days of my university holidays, he told me "I'll be back" and left. Carrying just a backpack, he spent two weeks walking from his house in Nonoichi, around the Noto Peninsula, to my house in Okyozuka. He walked by himyself, with just a radio for company, through rain and snow, to meet me. Why did he spend so long walking to my house, when he could have easily run via the shortest route? Why, for what reason, it's a mystery.
It's my graduation day. I left university in my hakama skirt, and there, crouched down by my front door like an old towel, he was waiting.
"I was waiting for you. Let's get married"
The long journey had been to determine if he was ready to say those words. I'd been thinking about how to say "welcome back" (okaeri), but in the end my chest was bursting and I couldn't say a word. It's been 12 years since then. Now a father of three, I tell him "Okaeri" every day.
3: Welcome Home Message
Last winter, I fell in love. She was living alone in Kobe. I was in Fukuoka. We both had fax machines, and were trying to save money on phone calls, so we made do as best we could by faxing each other instead.
She doesn't have anyone to say "welcome home" (okaeri) when she comes home. She says she's used to it, but I'm sure it makes her feel sad. If I were living alone, and had someone to wish me okaeri... I suddenly had an idea. I could try sending a welcome home fax. I could send a warm okaeri her way with fax. And when she saw that...
Ah, but it's silly. Isn't it? I feel lost. in the end, I decided to try. I phrased it simply. "Okaeri. You must be tired," and set it to send in the evening. That evening, I received a call from her.
"I was so happy"
She said quickly. Then...
"Oh I was sooo happy!"
All I could do was blush.
4: Ni huilai le, we deng le
Her name was Michi Watanabe. She was 18, looked good with her hair down, and was kind with a cute nature. Just before the end of the war she worked in the Beijing Railway Bureau in China.
I was 19, and working at Beijing Station. We were such a cute couple that we even dreamed of planning our future life together on the mainland. However, in December 1944, I was called as one of the last young men under the conscription system, and ended up serving in the military.
The painful day of separation came. She brought with her a charm from the Beijing Shrine, which contained a photograph of herself. She said, "Be sure to come back."
I was at a loss for words.
The war ended soon after, and I was dismissed in May the next year. I'd heard from a friend that Michi had returned to Japan straight after the war, but was hospitalised with severe pulmonary tuberculosis. I rushed to the hospital on an overnight train. A paper was taped to the door "no visitors allowed"... I ignored it and entered the room, and immediately began shouting.
"Michi can you hear me? It's me!"
With a clouded mind she laughed for a moment and replied in Chinese, Ni huilai le, we deng le (welcome home dear. I was waiting).
Michi seemed relieved, and held my hand until, 6 hours later, she departed from this life.
Famous sayings from ancient and modern times.
There is a saying that goes "the things that cannot be stopped are the moon, the sun, flowing water, and human life." No matter how natural the law may be, this sad "welcome home" are words that I will never forget for the rest of my life.
5: Ho-chan's One-man Show
Both my husband and I work office jobs, so we weren't able to attend our children's school events, which made them feel lonely.
One cold, snowy day, after I'd finished my work for the morning, I began to feel dizzy and sick from a cold, so I went home to rest.
At about 4pm, the front door opened. It was my eldest daughter Honami (nicknamed Ho-chan), then a third-grade student, coming home.
"I'm home"
There was a paused, followed by "Ho-chan, welcome home" in a voice imitating me.
Tears welled up in my eyes at the thought of her coming home every day and pretending to be welcomed home.
"Ho-chan, welcome home" I called from my bed.
"What? You were home?" She said, hugging me around my chest. Ho-chan, like me, will be a mother one day too.
6: A White Carnation
I quietly opened the door of his hospital room. As if he knew who I was from my footsteps, my father's gentle voice greets me from his bed "welcome home."
Seven years ago, he was hospitalised saying he had only three months left to live. I've visited him every day since, coming by bus and steam train.
I want to hear him say those two words, "welcome home" as many times as I can.
When I was six years old my mother passed away. My father raised me single-handedly, and his "welcome back" will forever be special to me. On mother's day when I was in second grade, I come home from school upset - I'd been the only one wearing a white carnation on my chest. My father simply said "welcome home" as he hugged me tightly, and with his clumbsy hands he made a ribbon out of red cloth and replaced the carnation.
At that time I'd said, "Dad, your 'welcome home' always makes me feel happy" and I guess he never forgot, because he said it every day I visited him, until his last. As if saying goodbye, on his last day, his eyes were telling me "be happy."
7: My Father's "Welcome Home"
The first time I found it was on the kitchen calendar. My heart instantly felt warm. Next it was the living room calendar. It was there too! And the toilet, and the entryway…
It's been 6 years since I moved to Argentina. The months flew by so quickly.
"Come home just this once"
The words of my elder sister and friends called me back to Japan.
After 6 and a half years, I opened the front door to my childhood home.
"I'm home" I call, and my father's face appears from his room. He looks a little embarassed "you haven't changed a bit" he says.
When I was a child, it was like there was a wall separating me from my busy father, with neither of us interacting beyond basic greetings like "good morning" or "welcome home."
I snuck into my father's room and found the calendar beside his bed.
April 8th was the day of my return.
And on that day, bigger than any other calendar in the house, was a big red circle.
More than any words, this symbol of my warm and kind father's "welcome home" filled my chest to the brim.