January to March 2003
Emails part four: Chihiro and Masaaki
Date: 2003/01/12
To: Masaaki
From: Chihiro
Subject: Iceland was fantastic!
Hello Masaaki.
Happy New Year! I missed all the fun stuff this year, but I don't mind.
I have so many more impressions from Iceland, than I said on the phone, I don't know where to begin. It was just fantastic! I can't wait until I'll be there in three months, I'm very excited.
And yes, even though I did not see Haku, I felt his presence, or at least I imagined it. Everywhere I was thinking that Haku might have been here just recently, when no one was watching. But that wasn't really important, and I certainly didn't ask anyone if they had seen a sea monster anywhere.
When I tried my few Icelandic phrases, people smiled, although I almost never understood what they were talking about. I was able to talk with some of them in Norwegian though, and if they talked back in Danish really slow then I even understood something. But Danish sounds very different, it is much easier to read for me. There is so much to learn still. There's a lot of English too, but I didn't see anything in Japanese.
I was surprised at how friendly people were to me, even though they didn't know me. They took us to see a lot of places, although they said it is much nicer in the summer. But if I loved it now as much as I did, how can it get any better yet?
And about the coldness and darkness, it really wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. The Atlantic Ocean prevents the temperatures from getting too cold, as for example in Siberia. The weather seems to change pretty fast, but I had good clothes and it didn't bother me.
The family where I will stay during the summer, or whenever I want to, was incredible. They have a 17 year old daughter and a 19 year old son who already now treated me like a little sister. But what if I disappoint them? They live in Reykjavik, the capital, which is such a small nice town, you have to see it to believe it. Only about 110,000 people live here, and that's almost half of all the country. Everything is slower than here in Japan, people have much more time, and space.
But the school was best of all. It's in a very small village at a lake, but the lake is heated from volcanic activity, so we can swim there even when other lakes are too cold. The school itself is called "Menntaskólinn að Laugarvatni" which means "Grammar School of Laugarvatn". It is really small, only 170 students are there, that's not even 50 per year! Unfortunately I didn't meet them, most of them were home during the vacation. But they told me that they all hold together like a big family, and care for each other. They sleep in a dormitory, and that reminded me of living in the bath house a lot. A lot of my memories come back now, things I forgot while being alone.
Here are some pictures of the
school: www.ml.is/index.asp?efni=281&undirfl=Iþróttamiðstöðin, Menntaskólinn, heimavist&flokkur=Myndir
and this is the whole village Laugarvatn from above: www.ml.is/index.asp?efni=326&undirfl=Yfirlitsmynd af
Laugarvatni&flokkur=Myndir
It's so small, isn't it? I wonder how many people live there.
I did not go to the east, to Höfn and the Öræfajökull, but I didn't mind. I'll go there one day, when the time is right, and find my river. Even if I don't, it doesn't matter any more. I know, I will feel what I have to do.
Chihiro
Date: 2003/01/16
To: Chihiro
From: Masaaki
Subject: Happy New Year!
Hello Chihiro.
It sounds like you are happy now. Or that you will be really happy in a few weeks. I'm still sorry I couldn't come along to see it. But isn't it much better if Risa and I spend the money for the flight for visiting you in the summer, when there is much more time, right?
What you said and wrote sounds really wonderful, and I wish more people would make the experience of learning another culture first hand. I hope to hear a lot more, then it could be almost as if I were there too.
I did some more research lately and I think this might help you whenever you decide to start looking for the new river. On the page: hraun.vedur.is/~dori/esjufjoll2002/esjufjoll.html you find a log of the earthquake your father experienced, and at the bottom you find coordinates of each shake in longitude and latitude together with the time. Maybe one of those points will be a hint.
But now I see that this doesn't matter, you don't need any proof any more. And I was hoping for a picture of Haku to go onto my wall! Just kidding of course.
I'll be with my parents this weekend, maybe we could meet. You have to tell me more about this strange land. And you're sure you didn't see any Spirits or hidden people?
Next week the whole nation will be thinking of you. Does that make you feel different?
I'll call you,
Masaaki
Date: 2003/02/11
To: Masaaki
From: Chihiro
Subject: Happy Foundation Day!
Hello Masaaki.
I'm sorry I didn't write for a while, but I'm really busy with everything. I think I understand now how Icelandic works, but there are many rules, and many exceptions. And my vocabulary is still very small, I am concentrating on pronunciation and syntax. Unfortunately we didn't find any native from Iceland to teach me here, so I have to work with tapes and from my father.
It's only six and a half weeks now until my plane will be leaving. I got my ticket today, I've read it a hundred times already. We are leaving on March 28th at 11:45. At 16:15 I'll be in Copenhagen. But the flight is much longer, you have to add I don't remember how many hours. It's with SAS, Scandinavian Airlines, it's an Airbus 340. Here is a link: (this link doesn't work on fanfiction.net, please go to thibros.de for a working link) It's so huge! I wanted to get a place at a window, but my father said it's not possible yet to book the seats.
I have only three and a half hours in Copenhagen, I don't think I will see anything from the city. At 20:55 I'll be in Reykjavik, and I'll spend the weekend there, with the new family. My dad and my mom will return on Monday, and I'll be brought to the school. I've written to the assistant headmaster, Mr. Pall, and he says he's looking forward to having me there and that I'm the first girl from Japan.
I love this ticket. It's proof that this is really happening, and not just another dream. Rather it's both, it's a dream that is happening. I'm afraid that if I lose the ticket, I'll lose my dream, so nobody may touch it. It's holy. And I did put my hair band around the ticket to protect it, just in case. You could touch it if you wanted to. And Risa. But nobody else!
At school everybody is asking me about Iceland, but I can't answer their questions yet. Everybody is asking me to write them and send them a postcard. Well, not everybody, but a few are. Seishiro even said he'd like to visit me, but I don't know. It would be nice to spend those weeks in summer with just you and Risa and my parents.
My father said, Iceland might become active in whaling business. After having rejoined the IWC last year they might think about starting "scientific whaling" in the future, says he. I think, even when a million people protest and say, whaling is wrong, nothing will change if there aren't a few that actually take the time to find out everything about this.
I hope I can learn about this too, and I would want to help establish a cooperation between Iceland and Japan to keep the whaling at a minimum. So it is good if there are people who speak Icelandic and Japanese, and maybe there are even some Icelandic people who want to learn Japanese. I could help them.
I really should think about the final exams now, but I can't. I think of parting from here, from my family and friends, from Japan, from everything I know so far. Just imagine me standing with the others during graduation singing "Hotaru no hikari". (literally "light of fireflies", sung to the melody of "Auld Lang Syne" at graduations as a farewell. The translator.) I know I will start crying, I just know it. This song never had much meaning for me, but this time it will be more than I can bear.
I know I have much to look forward to, and I really do, but some of my friends from school I might never see again. I just started making friends, and now I will lose them all. I know I will make new friends, I'm very confident, but it will take time. In the beginning I will be alone again.
But I'll have Haku.
Chihiro
Date: 2003/03/03
To: Chihiro
From: Masaaki
Subject: Call me!
Hello Chihiro.
I tried to call you but there is nobody home. Not even the answering machine is working. I need to talk to you.
Over the weekend I found something in the internet, but I can only tell you about it on phone. When you read this, please don't use your instant messenger, or not even email any more, this is important. The internet is not safe.
I also want to talk about other things. For example, I found a comparison to the movie "Whisper of the Heart", only here you are the one that goes to Europe, and I stay here. I know, once we start looking for similarities we always find a lot, but maybe this is a theme of life, in the symphony of the world? Parting from friends even though we don't want to, but we know we have to…
I know we see each other before you fly away, but I don't know if I find the words to say this then. You have shown me a lot of your world, thank you a whole lot. Even though I still don't know what I want in my life, unlike you, I'm more confident now. To live from making music is not easy, there are many talented pianists around, far better than I am. I don't want to follow them any more, I want to go my own way. But only when I see my way. First I have to learn from others, from people who have found their way, like my parents, my piano teacher, and you.
SenJin, you are a very lucky girl.
Call me soon,
Masaaki