The Eighth Day by Mitsuyo Kakuta

Author:Mitsuyo Kakuta [Kakuta, Mitsuyo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kodansha International
Published: 2010-04-19T17:00:00+00:00

NOVEMBER 14

Every time I visit a holy place I check the record I’ve been keeping. I make a point of stopping whenever I see one near the road, but I haven’t even made it to thirty of the eighty-eight yet as it’s hard to find time to get to temples that are further away, out in the mountains.

Last month I was hired at the Sawada Soba Restaurant. I’ve told Masae—Kumi’s mother—that my name is Kyoko Miyata. Mostly I work as a waitress or stand behind the counter selling packets of noodles. The restaurant and noodle factory are right next to the house Kumi’s mother and grandparents live in, so there’s not much of a boundary between the family business and their private life. When things aren’t too busy I sometimes nip over to do the family’s laundry or weed their garden. Masae assured me it would be fine to bring Kaoru along to the restaurant; and though at first I was worried about imposing on them, Kaoru’s too young to be left alone, so we both turn up together every morning. Kaoru has made friends, too. They’re all children from the neighborhood: Satomi, Shin’nosuke, and Sakura, who all go to kindergarten, and Satomi’s big sister Yuri, the leader of the group. The four of them regularly come calling for Kaoru, to take her out to play somewhere. I thought it might be risky letting the children go off by themselves, but around here, where people rarely bother to lock their doors, there’s apparently not much to worry about.

We’ve moved into the prefab house Masae told me about, which actually belongs to some relations of hers called Sakamoto. It was once a storehouse, but they had it fixed up for their son when he was in high school. He’s going to university in Kyushu now.

Sometimes on my day off, Masae takes us sightseeing in her car. We went to see the autumn leaves at Kanka-kei Gorge, and watched the sun set over the sea near the old wooden schoolhouse where the movie Twenty-four Eyes was filmed. Though Kaoru didn’t make a fuss about boarding the cable car at the gorge, she’s still as wary as ever. If something doesn’t seem quite right to her, she refuses to budge. Masae’s patience gets a bit strained at times, but no matter how long it takes she’ll still wait for Kaoru to make a move.

Since she’s made some friends, Kaoru has learned lots of new words. To my amazement, one day she said, “When I’m bigger I’m going to build you a great big villa.”

In the afternoons when things ease off in the restaurant I sit down with Masae and Nobuko, who works part-time, to have some lunch. They’ve been telling me about a Kabuki play that was put on in a village near here last month.

“Kaoru should be in it next year,” Masae suggested. Most of the kids who appear in the children’s Kabuki are in elementary school, but Nobuko said, “She’s such a little beauty, I’m sure no one will mind.

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