Nara No Hitotachi

[Alistair]

Hi!

In 1995, to what felt like astounding good fortune, I was selected to be a participant in the Japanese Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme in Nara prefecture. It changed the trajectory of my life. I would spend three years working in a very genki agricultural high school, situated within the grounds of the former castle of Koriyama, surrounded by a moat. Outside the gate from this castle’s grounds, across the street from the duck inhabited waters the color of macha was a small Indian restaurant in a kominka, run by an easy-going hippie couple.

Over the three years of my contract, I would regularly take my lunches here, escaping from the energy of the high school environment and losing myself in the tranquillity of their simple garden where I’d eat curry, listen to reggae music and talk with whoever might accompany me. During this time and into the years beyond my days as a high school teacher, my girlfriend and I came to love this kominka, with its wobbly glass sliding doors, worn tatami mats, wraparound engawa, old toilet, and its charming people—and we began to dream of having our own home, just like it, one day.

As what remained of Koriyama’s former red light district just south of Kintetsu Koriyama station began to thin out even more, we sometimes imagined buying one of the remaining kominka or machiya that stood—sometimes at an angle—in this neighbourhood of disrepute. It was with sadness that one of the houses we had been eye for some time, one we’d been beginning to dream about, one day appeared to have picked up and relocated. It seemed it knew the life of the neighbourhood was fading and it couldn’t bear to stick around.

It also felt like we were running out of time.

There were many other houses that we encountered and imagined building a life in, but because of circumstances or family, we were dissuaded ultimately from making the purchase.

Finally, the time was right, and it was then that we practically stumbled upon our dream home. Located in the unpopular and “inconvenient” inaka south of Nara city, we found ourselves persuaded to overlook the inconvenience of a six minute train ride to downtown or a interminable 14-minute bicycle ride to the edge of Naramachi. There were other hurdles too, like the view of Wakakusayam and the dark primeval forest visible from our doorstep, the fresh air, and the rice fields with a tiny frogs that sing beneath the stars, mid-summer outside out windows—all those reminders that are not in the very center of the action.

There are drafts and there is work ahead, but we are happy with our choice.

[Author]

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