The journey to Yokkaichi

As I've mentioned previously, having lived in Mishima and Nagoya and traveled frequently between Tokyo and Osaka, I'm pretty familiar with many of the areas the Tokaido passes through. In fact this familiarity was one of the reasons why I chose to walk the Nakasendo instead of the Tokaido back in 2007.

The section of the Tokaido I'm least familiar with is probably the section between Kusatsu and Nagoya. The journey between these cities, which I'll tackle on days two to six, will take me over the Suzuka Pass (near the Suzuka Circuit, host of the F1 Japanese Grand Prix) and through the city of Yokkaichi. I don't think I've ever been to Yokkaichi. When I was a student at Nagoya University in the early 1990s, I went on a class trip to the Ise Shrine. This would have entailed traveling passed if not through Yokkaichi, but I honestly have no memories of the place.


I've always associated Yokkaichi and the surrounding area with pollution and illness. Yokkaichi is home to a large konbinato (this Japanese word, meaning a large industrial complex, is one of only a handful of loanwords from Russian), and in the 1960s and early-1970s, the presence of sulphur oxide-laden smog generated by this complex led to severe cases of an asthma-like illness among local residents. This illness, which was given the name Yokkaichi zensoku (Yokkaichi asthma), was one of the Four Big Pollution Diseases of Japan. I think the first time I heard of Yokkaichi, way back when I first became interested in things Japanese, was in relation to this illness, and it could be that since then I've unconsciously avoided going anywhere near it.

Today Yokkaichi seems to have solved its pollution problems, and I'm actually looking forward to going there. The official tree of the city is the camphor tree. The official bird is the black-headed gull.

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 176km
Days left until departure: 31

Dr. Frankenstein's monster

Yesterday I went back to the hospital to have my stitches removed. After looking at my nose for a few seconds with a somewhat perplexed expression on her face, the nurse declared that it was slightly infected. I was kind of expecting this. A couple of white spots had appeared on the surface of the graft over the weekend, and I noticed first thing in the morning when I checked it out in the mirror that one of these was looking a bit pussy.

Another nurse (a specialist in cleaning wounds of this kind) was called in to spruce up my nose and take out the stitches there and in my neck. This took the best part of an hour. During this time one of the surgeons who did the graft (the blonde, whom I now know is called Emily) wandered in and had a look. Apart from the infection, she was pretty happy with the results. The name Brad Pitt was even mentioned.

The nurse removing the stitches had a bit of trouble with the last one or two in my nose. By this time Emily had gone into surgery, so another surgeon (a young man called David) was called in. He had on what looked like a pair of night vision goggles, but which I suppose were fancy glasses. He managed to untangle the last stitches. He also showed me how to "roll" the graft using cotton buds to remove any puss and help the skin heal. I'm supposed to do this three times a day.

Before leaving I was given a prescription for some antibiotics, which I have to take four times a day, and some more of the goopy ointment I was given last week, which I have to apply to my nose and neck three times a day. Before I left the hospital I had a look in a mirror. My nose looked a lot better. However, the wound on my neck where they removed the skin for the graft (and which had been bandaged since the operation) looked a bit gory. I looked a bit like Dr. Frankentstein's monster*. The good news is that there shouldn’t be a permanently visible scar there, as it will disappear into the folds of my double chin.

One of the nurses told me a funny story about a patient who came in to have some stitches removed from his neck. The nurse couldn't see any stitches, and thinking they may have been special ones, she asked the surgeon about it. But the surgeon said they were just normal stitches. It turned out the patient had had a shave, neatly removing all traces of the stitches above the surface of the skin.

*A popular misconception is that the monster in Mary Shelley's classic novel (written when she was just 19) is called Frankenstein. In fact Frankenstein is the name of the scientist who created the monster, who is nameless.

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 173km
Days left until departure: 32

The nose may be munted but the legs work fine

Distance walked today: 8.7km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 170km
Days left until departure: 34

The China Lover (cont.)

I began reading Ian Buruma's The China Lover "cold", so to speak, knowing about it only what I'd read in the review in the local newspaper which spurred me to buy the book (the contents of which I've almost completely forgotten anyway) and in the blurb on the back. I'd deliberately avoided reading the Wikipedia article on the book's central character, Yamaguchi Yoshiko, as well as other reviews of the book online lest they reveal too much of the plot.

I soon discovered, however, that the blurb is quite misleading. "When Sidney Vanoven is sent to occupied Japan, in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, it is his dream posting," it begins. "By day, he works in the censor's office watching Japanese films; at night he immerses himself in the sensual pleasures of Tokyo. His job leads him into the circle of film star Shirley Yamaguchi, a strong and passionate woman, whose wartime past hints at deception and betrayal."

Imagine my surprise, then, on beginning the novel only to discover that we were not in post-Second World War Japan but in pre-Second World War Manchuria, and that the narrator was not Sidney Vanoven, but a Japanese national by the name of Sato Daisuke. Any feelings of disorientation soon disappeared, however, as I became caught up in the plot and captivated by the characters. Yesterday, however, curiosity got the better of me and had a peek at some of the reviews of The China Lover at Amazon.

What I now know is that The China Lover consists of three parts, each of which is narrated by a different character. At least two of these characters are based on real people. The Sidney Vanoven of the blurb, who narrates part two, is obviously based on famous Japanophile and movie critic Donald Richie (both are gay and both are from small town Ohio). The narrator of part three (which is set in contemporary times) is apparently based on Kozo Okamoto, a member of the Japanese Red Army.

Curiously, the Publishers Weekly review of The China Lover at Amazon describes part one as being narrated by Vanoven, and part two by Sato. So perhaps this was the original order of the parts. If so, it would explain the misleading blurb.

Anyway, I've just started part two. The conclusion to part one was extremely satisfying from a personal point of view, featuring as it did the suicide of Amakasu Masahiko, one of those responsible for the murder of Osugi Sakae and Ito Noe. Interestingly, though, while in reality Amakasu took his own life by ingesting potassium cyanide, in Buruma's novel he shoots himself, the same method depicted in the movie The Last Emperor, the recently-released Blu-ray disc version of which features an interview with - wait for it - Ian Buruma!

Distance walked today: 7.7km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 161.3km
Days left until departure: 35

Nose update

Today I finally plucked up enough courage to venture outside. I walked around the local neigbourhood for nearly an hour, being careful to avoid anywhere there might be a crowd and crossing the street whenever I saw someone walking in the opposite direction.

The nose is still a wreck. Bits of the graft are showing signs of returning to a natural skin colour, but the rest is still a reddish purple. There's a rim of dry blood around the circumference. If I cleaned this away it would look a lot better, but when I rang the hospital on Tuesday the nurse said to leave it. Also, I have to apply this goopy ointment that looks a bit like puss. The overall effect is like a small slab of meat that's been left outside for too long. And I have this on the side of my nose. So all things considered, the hooter is not something I want to foist on unsuspecting passersby at the moment thank you.

Distance walked today: 4.1km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 153.6km
Days left until departure: 36

The China Lover

I finished reading William Boyd's The Blue Afternoon on Monday, the day I had my nose surgery. In fact, I read the last dozen or so pages while sitting in the waiting room of the Ear, Nose and Throat Outpatients Department (Otolaryngology) at Christchurch Hospital. It probably wasn't the best choice of reading material, given that much of the story is set in a hospital in Manila at the dawn of the 20th century, and that Boyd seemed to find great pleasure in describing some of the less sanitary medical practices in vogue at the time. Thankfully none of these were mentioned in the final pages, otherwise I would have been even more nervous than I already was.

I've now started reading The China Lover by Ian Buruma, which is one of the books I bought in Wellington when I was up there for the jazz festival. I often find it difficult switching between novels by different authors, but this hasn’t been the case this time. Perhaps it's because Buruma's writing style is quite "neutral", for want of a better word, especially compared to the more flambouyant style of Boyd. Which is not to say that I'm not enjoying The China Lover. Quite the contrary. The characters, setting, and narrative are all fascinating, and more than make up for the rather mundane prose.

Based on the life of Japanese film star Yamaguchi Yoshiko (a.k.a. Otaka Yoshiko, Ri Koran, Shirley Yamaguchi), The China Lover is described by the author as "a work of fiction based on historical events". Many of the characters in the book are based on real people. The story begins in the 1930s in Japanese-occupied Manchuria, and I'd barely read twenty pages or so before a character I'm quite familiar with made an appearance.

I'm talking of Amakasu Masahiko, who was one of the military police officers responsible for the murder in 1923 of Osugi Sake, Ito Noe, and Sakae's nephew, an event I've touched on previously. Amakasu was convicted of this crime and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. However, he was released after just three years and, after a period of study in France, joined the Japanese occupying forces in Manchuria, where he was responsible for managing the Japanese Army's involvement in the opium trade among other things. He later became the head of the Manchukuo Film Association, a company set up by the Japanese to make propaganda films to boost support for their occupation, and as such played a prominent role in the earlier career of The China Lover's main character, Yamaguchi Yoshiko. Some of you may also remember him from the movie The Last Emperor, in which he was played by Sakamoto Ryuichi. In fact many characters from that movie appear in the first part of The China Lover, including Emperor Pu Yi himself, who was a Charlie Chaplin fan, apparently.

Distance walked today: 0km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 149.5km
Days left until departure: 37

Nose news

I got a bit of a shock this morning when I looked in the mirror and saw the state of my nose. Overnight the grafted section had gone from a more or less normal pink colour to a purplish colour. I rang the hospital and got through to a nurse in the Ear, Nose and Throat Outpatients Department who promised to talk to a doctor and get back to me. She just rang back and reassured me that this was nothing to be concerned about. However, I was told to get in touch again if it turned green.

Distance walked today: 0km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 149.5km
Days left until departure: 39