Chapter 10 in which Ponyo, Sosuke and Lisa go on an Expedition
"Hi Ponyo."
"Hi Mr. Narrator!"
"How are you doing?"
"Fine."
"What brings you to the park?"
"Mom wanted me to run around and spend time outdoors."
"Where's Sosuke?"
"He had a really big day at school so he's really tired. He's at home taking a nap. What'cha doing, and what are you reading?"
"I'm listening to some classical music and reading a book about it."
"What's 'classical music?'"
"Classical music is a style of music that is...well...it's different from other stuff you listen to. People mainly play it just so you can listen to it. It's not dance music or anything like that."
"Okay."
"I'm listening to a Mahler symphony."
"A Mahler symphony?"
"Dear me, I'm not explaining myself very well. Okay...ahem...Gustav Mahler was a composer, a person who wrote music. He composed symphonies, pieces of music written for a large group of instruments."
"Like an orchestra?"
"Exactly."
"Sensei taught us all about instruments and music today. Can I hear?"
"Sure. Here you go. This is from his 5th Symphony."
...
"Mmm. I like it a lot."
"Yeah. I'd show you more, but it goes on for a while. So...did you want to hear a story?"
"Yes please."
"Sure. Let me set this down...and turn this off...and, there. So, where was I?"
"We just finished the capture-the-flag game."
"That's right. Well..."
After playing capture-the-flag, the students all went inside and studied some more. The main focus of the day was geography. Sensei taught them about the various places in their home country of Japan. That day, Ponyo learned about Mt. Fuji, what the nation capital was and what it meant, where North and South were and various other things. She even got to help the teacher at one point. That happened when Sensei pulled down a map to show the children what countries lay to the west of Japan. It was one of those pull-down maps where you pull a string and the map is pulled down so that you can see it.
"Now children," she began, "who can tell me what countries are to the west of…"
Sensei didn't finish her sentence. When she pulled on the rope, the map came down sure enough, but so did the roller attached to the map. Both fell to the floor with a crash as a startled and slightly embarrassed Sensei stumbled to catch them. The children all laughed at this little disaster while Sensei picked up the map and roller. After a couple of vain attempts at getting the pull-down map back onto the wall, she finally gave up and put them aside.
"Well um…now where were we?" Sensei said.
"You were asking us what places were west of Japan," said Nao.
"Oh yes," Sensei concurred. "Now, I don't have a map, but…"
With that, she picked up a marker and started to draw a rough sketch of Japan and the Asian mainland to the west. But Ponyo knew what Sensei needed. She got up, grabbed a large ball like a globe and ran over to the teacher. While Sensei continued drawing, Ponyo tugged on her pant leg. Sensei looked at Ponyo.
"Yes?" she inquired.
"Here," Ponyo said, shoving the ball toward Sensei's arms. "Use this. This is like the other map."
Sensei took the ball with a smile.
"Thank you Ponyo," she said. "This will do nicely."
Ponyo smiled and bowed, skipped over to Sosuke's side and plopped down on the floor as Sensei taught more geography using Ponyo's globe. After that, Sensei had the whole class draw pictures of Japan and the basic geography. Sosuke and Ponyo worked on the same picture. Sosuke drew the outline of Japan and the major cities while Ponyo drew the mountains and rivers.
School was let out early that afternoon. All the children took their pictures and prepared to go home. Kumiko picked up hers and rushed past Ponyo and Sosuke to the door.
"Goodbye Sosuke!" she called cheerily.
"Bye Kumiko!" Sosuke returned.
"Bye!" Ponyo said.
Kumiko just looked at Ponyo and kept going. It wasn't a particularly friendly look at that…but it wasn't a nasty, un-friendly look either. She just looked and left in a rush. Unfortunately, she was so much in a rush, she forgot to watch where she was going and collided into Naoki. The two fell to the ground, scattering papers everywhere. Ponyo and Sosuke gasped and couldn't help but giggle a little. After all, no one was seriously hurt.
Kumiko and Naoki apologized to each other, picked up their papers and left. Kumiko almost left the hallway when she heard Ponyo's voice.
"Wait Kumiko! You forgot this!"
She looked and sure enough she forgot one of her pictures. Ponyo was running toward her with the picture in hand. She gave the picture back to Kumiko, who then took it from Ponyo's hand. She looked at her picture and then Ponyo. She couldn't bring herself to say "thank you" to her rival. But at the same time, she couldn't help but be a little grateful that Ponyo was considerate enough to give her picture back. So she just nodded and walked away. Ponyo watched her go and continued to talk with Sosuke as if nothing happened.
Right after school, as Lisa drove the children home along the mountain road, everyone of course got to talking about the capture-the-flag game.
"It was amazing mom!" Sosuke said excitedly. "Ponyo saved the game."
"Really?" Lisa asked. "How did you do it Ponyo?"
"I snuck up on Naoki's team while they were distracted," Ponyo replied. "Then I got everybody out, but we pretended that we were caught so that we could trick them."
Lisa laughed. "You are a sneaky girl!"
Ponyo laughed in response.
"Then Ponyo did something really good," Sosuke continued. "She got Kumiko free and she didn't even have to."
"Really?" asked Lisa.
"Mm-hmm," Ponyo said with a nod.
"Why did you do that?"
"Well," Ponyo answered, "I thought that if I was in jail, I would want someone to help me. Then I thought Kumiko wanted the same."
"That was very good of you Ponyo," Lisa said.
"Thanks mom," Ponyo said.
Then, something happened…something Ponyo and Sosuke didn't expect. Lisa turned off the main road and onto a bumpy dirt road leading into the forests. As you can imagine, the two children were rather surprised.
"Um…mom," Sosuke remarked astutely, "home isn't this way. Home is that way."
"I know," Lisa said.
"Where are we going?" Ponyo asked. This was most unexpected and it made her a little nervous.
"Well," Lisa answered, 'remember when I promised you two that we would go walking in the woods?"
The two children gaped in realization.
"We're going on a walk?" Ponyo asked eagerly.
"Yes we are!" Lisa replied cheerily. "That's why I got to leave work early, so I can spend more time with my two kids."
"Yay!" cheered the children as they bounced in their seats with glee.
Lisa eventually parked at a small parking lot in a clearing. Not a soul was around. The children all hopped out of their seats and closed the car doors. They ran around the parking lot, looking in wonder at the trees towering all around the clearing. The only sign of life apart from the plant life was the chirping of birds. Ponyo gazed at everything and span in circles looking up at the sky through the clearing. It was almost too much for her to take in. Finally, Lisa called them.
"Okay kids! Gather 'round!"
The children ran over to her. Lisa took a small backpack out of the trunk of the car and put it on her back.
"Now kids," she explained, "I have water in here. If you need some, just let me know. Also, do not, and I repeat, do NOT ever step off the path or get separated. We all stay together. Okay?"
"Yes mom," the kids replied obediently.
"Promise?"
"We promise."
"Good," Lisa said. "Then let's go."
And so their little expedition into the forests began. Sosuke walked in front, Ponyo walked behind him and Lisa took up the rear to make sure her kids didn't fall behind.
As they walked through the forests, Ponyo gazed in wonder at her surroundings. The trees were close enough to give the forest a deep and mysterious look, but not suffocatingly close. In fact, Ponyo didn't feel claustrophobic at all. It was, however, a strange and almost otherworldly experience for her. Light filtered through the treetops, resulting in the most curious shadows cast upon the forest floor. Above her were layers of leaves and branches, giving the forest a very tall and cavernous look. Tree trunks of all varieties rose out of the ground and up into the canopy. Solid and straight trunks towered to the sky alongside twisted and curling trees covered in vines. In the distance, the forest disappeared deeper into itself. There was no sky or horizon visible whenever Ponyo looked straight ahead. All she saw then were bushes, ferns and, of course, tree trunks of all kinds.
The forest path took them deeper and deeper into the woods. It guided them over large tree roots, through tree tunnels, along the bases of embankments made up of roots and earth, and even across streams. One stream had a lovely row of jumping rocks spanning from bank to bank. Ponyo jumped from rock to rock with Sosuke in tow. Lisa cautiously picked her way across the rocks.
"Be careful kids," she called. "You don't want to fall."
Unfortunately, her warning came a little too late. No sooner did she finish her sentence than Ponyo's foot slipped and she tumbled and plopped into the shallow water with a splash.
"Ponyo!" Lisa and Sosuke exclaimed.
No longer thinking of getting their own feet wet, they clumsily waded and splashed over to Ponyo as fast as they could. When they reached her, Ponyo stood up, dripping wet from head to toe. She shook her head to dry it out a little and rubbed the water out of her eyes.
"Are you all right?" Sosuke asked, concerned and amused at the same time.
"You okay honey?" Lisa inquired, placing a hand on Ponyo's back.
"Mm-hmm," Ponyo said. "Now I'm all wet. Do we have a towel?"
"I'm afraid not," Lisa replied. "Do you want to go home?"
"No!" Ponyo replied. She shook her head vehemently in protest. "I want to see where this goes!"
"Okay," Lisa agreed warily, "but if you start to catch cold, I'm gonna have to take you home."
"Okay mom," Ponyo replied.
So the three sopping wet adventurers splashed their way across and squished along the trail once more. After a while, they forgot about their squelching shoes and their dripping clothes and just enjoyed the scenery. The trees took on more and more interesting forms with curious garments of mushrooms and vines. At one point in the journey, Ponyo stopped to examine a set of mushrooms that caught her eye. A large number of brown-capped fungi grew out of the side of a tree trunk. Some were clustered in layered groups like terraces. Other grew up the side of the tree like a set of stairs. Ponyo gazed at these curious growths and solemnly brushed her finger against the soft and fleshy cap.
"Don't eat those Ponyo," Lisa warned.
"What are they?" Ponyo asked.
"Those are called mushrooms," Lisa answered. "Some kinds can be eaten, but others are very, very poisonous."
That comment caused Ponyo to back away from the mushroom.
"Do you die?" Ponyo asked in a scared voice.
"Yes you can," Lisa said gravely. "So don't ever eat a mushroom unless I buy it at the store or a friend serves it to you at dinner. In fact, don't even touch wild mushrooms."
"Yes mom," Ponyo obediently replied. Then she looked at the strange fungi. "It still looks pretty."
"Oh yes," Lisa agreed. "You can look at it, just don't touch it."
After Lisa's mushroom lesson, they continued their trek. At last, after a steep climb up a hill, they reached a good-sized meadow. The field was clear of trees and bushes. In the middle of the field was a small spring bordered by concrete walls and an old stone well.
"This must be the old well," Lisa remarked. "Long ago, when Uramoto was much smaller, this was the source of their water. Look, you can see the old ditch that leads to the coast." Lisa pointed to a streambed winding away from the spring and into the woods. It had very little water in it now. Most the water ran out of an opening in the concrete walls and into another stream flowing to the west.
"I see it," Sosuke said.
"Eventually, the people of Ura Town found a better supply of water, so they stopped using this one. No one uses this spring anymore."
"Okay," Ponyo said. "I'm gonna run around."
"Me too," Sosuke said.
"Okay," Lisa replied, "but stay in the meadow where I can see you."
"Yes mom," they answered.
So before you could say 'lickety-split,' Ponyo and Sosuke whipped their shoes off and ran barefooted through the grassy field. They started a game of tag and chased each other across the field and back again. Occasionally, they would collide into Lisa. But when one volunteers to be "safe" in a game of tag, one must expect to be collided into, and to be honest Lisa didn't mind it a bit. Even after they stopped playing tag, Ponyo kept on running. Running was an exhilarating experience. She loved moving fast and using her legs. She also loved the feel of grass and soft earth beneath her feet. But even she got tired after a while, and would then plop down on the grass or bathe her feet in the spring. But that only lasted for a little. After she rested on the grass for about five minutes, she ran up to Sosuke and Lisa.
"Come on!" she urged. "Let's go running!"
"Why?" Lisa asked playfully.
"Just because it's fun," Ponyo answered in a matter-of-fact voice.
So the three ran around just for fun. After a few minutes, Lisa stopped to catch her breath. Ponyo jogged in place in front of her.
"What'cha stopping for?" Ponyo asked. "Don't you think this is fun?"
"Mommy's tired," Lisa replied. "I just need to rest for a minute."
"Okay," Ponyo said. Then she called for Sosuke, who was still running around. "Hey Sosuke! Let's take a break!"
So the three laid down on the grass side by side. Lisa was in the middle with both children to her sides. They spent the next few moments gazing up at the great white clouds floating miles and miles overhead. Occasionally, Lisa would point out a cloud shape. Then the children would identify it, though sometimes their guesses as to what the cloud shape was differed.
"That's a flower!" Sosuke pointed out.
"No," Ponyo disagreed, "it's a starfish."
"But starfish don't have more than five arms," Sosuke protested.
"Yes they do, sometimes," Ponyo replied. "Some starfish even have ten or more!"
"Really?" Sosuke asked in amazement.
"Yep," Ponyo stated.
After a pause, Sosuke decided it was still a flower, but Ponyo decided not to mind.
The scene was so relaxing, Lisa actually fell asleep and Sosuke started to drift off to slumber-land. Only Ponyo was fully awake. She was too busy studying the clouds to fall asleep. She lost herself in the endless skies overhead with layers and layers of majestic cumulus clouds soaring across. The occasional bird flew overhead as well, which only served to make the sky look even bigger and more distant.
As she studied the clouds, she began to imagine. She saw all sorts of fantastic animals, plants and fishes in the skies above. Great white birds slowly sailed to the northwest like great ships. Whales that dwarfed the highest mountains swam through the blue expanse above. On occasion, the head and neck of a great sea serpent or dragon would slither out from behind a cloud and disappear into a cauliflower forest of some nearby cloudbanks. That dragon would then be followed by a school of small guppy clouds trailing behind. So Ponyo just laid on the grass and watched this enchanted zoo cross before her eyes. She imagined the creatures meeting each other as the clouds crossed over and under each other. It was like an otherworldly scene of nature tens of thousands of feet overhead. And then, something happened…something so incredible and out of the ordinary that you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you it was true. So at the risk of disbelief, I'll continue my story, telling everything as Ponyo told me.
Ponyo was gazing at one of her imaginary creatures, a great cloud serpent drifting toward a mountain of cloud, when she decided to wake up Lisa and head for home. So she stopped imagining and started rubbing Lisa on the shoulders.
"Mom?" Ponyo said. "Mom, it's time to wake…"
But she didn't finish her sentence. She happened to look up at that moment and she saw that same cloud serpent slither into another cloud. She only saw it for a moment before it vanished. But the strange thing was that she had stopped imagining. How could the cloud shape still be moving? And not only was it moving but it was also traveling unnaturally fast and against the wind! It was almost as if…Ponyo gasped in amazement and fright as she realized what had happened.
"IT'S ALIVE!" she exclaimed. Her cloud serpent was a living creature! Ponyo shook Lisa even more vigorously. They had to know what she saw! "Mom! Sosuke! Wake up! It's alive! My clouds animals are alive!"
Lisa woke up startled out of her nap.
"Okay, okay," she replied in a tired voice. "I'm up."
Sosuke got up as well while Ponyo tugged on their arms eagerly and pointed.
"Look! Look!" she exclaimed.
"What is it?" Sosuke inquired.
"There!" Ponyo pointed.
The family looked, but Ponyo's serpent was nowhere to be seen.
"I don't see anything," Sosuke remarked.
"But it was there!" Ponyo said excitedly. "It was a cloud snake I saw and it became alive!"
"Alive?" Lisa asked in an understandably disbelieving voice.
"Yes!" Ponyo insisted.
"It was probably your imagination," Lisa said assuringly.
"But it wasn't!" Ponyo insisted some more. "I stopped imagining and it still kept moving and it even went the wrong way!"
"Against the wind?" Lisa asked.
"Yes! That's it!"
Sosuke and Lisa didn't know what to make of what Ponyo supposedly saw. Lisa knew that the last thing she could do was discourage Ponyo, but at the same time it was just too crazy to comprehend. Living clouds? But…then again, she did come in contact with the Goddess of Mercy and spend some time in a magic, underwater chamber. With that, Lisa decided to play along.
"Okay Ponyo," she said. "The next time you see one of those things, let me know. Okay?"
"Yes mommy," Ponyo said. Then Ponyo returned to her original train of thought. "This was fun, but can we go home now? I'm hungry."
"Yeah, I'm hungry too," Sosuke concurred.
"Okay kids," Lisa chuckled, "let's go home."
And so our friends slipped their shoes on and walked back along the path, chattering away about what they learned in school, what they saw on the walk and all sorts of stuff. Lisa taught Ponyo more lessons about the forest and nature and Sosuke offered some bits of information too. As you can imagine, all this learning and adventuring was making Ponyo very tired. In fact, she was so tired, Lisa carried her to the car for the last half-mile of their hike. When they reached the car, Ponyo was out like a light. She was sound asleep the whole drive home and didn't wake up until dinnertime.
"And that's the end of that part of the story."
"That was a fun expedition. Do you go on expeditions?"
"Sometimes. I like to walk in the woods when I have the time."
"I want to go again."
"Maybe you will."
"Ponyo! It's time to go home!"
"Coming mom! I have to go now."
"Okay."
"Thank you very much for the story. And thanks for the music. I really liked it."
"No problem."
"I'll ask my mom if I can hear more."
"Sounds good. Have a great day and tell Sosuke I said hi."
"I will! Bye!"
Well, that was an adventure to remember. Ponyo and Sosuke finally got to explore the woods. Not only that, but...what Ponyo saw! I honestly don't know what to think of that. Living clouds? Now Ponyo is a truthful person so I almost believe that what she saw was real...what do you think?
So, what future adventures will Ponyo and Sosuke take part in? I guess we'll have to see. Until then, goodbye and God bless!
P.S. I really was listening to Mahler's 5th Symphony as I wrote the bookend scenes. In fact, I'm listening to it now. :) I have some of his symphonies and from what I've heard, they are real works of art! Quick bit of trivia: his 3rd Symphony is his longest at around 100 minutes. One recording of it is 105 minutes long, longer than the movie Ponyo (103 minutes). How about that? :D