The Girl from the Well

I’ve been in Japan for three whole days! Except we’re in an area called Kansai, which is a part of Japan that’s south of Tokyo, and I don’t think it’s as busy or as populated as I would imagine Tokyo to be. There aren’t as many shopping malls and restaurants (so no vending machines with used underwear or doggie spas, thankfully), but there are a lot of other things I bet you won’t get to see in Shibuya.

I saw a geisha the other day, maybe only a couple of years older than I am. She had on the most gorgeous kimono I’ve ever seen, all butterflies and paper lantern lights, and her face was made up in white powder and rouge. She said she just got back from entertaining a client who’s an executive at one of the biggest companies here in Japan. Mostly just playing shamisen, which my friend says is a Japanese instrument that’s like a guitar, and she and a group of other geisha sang and danced for a bit. Though I imagine their singing and dancing would be much different from what you and I are used to.

I’m helping a friend here named Allison to put together a thesis paper for when she returns to Canada. She’ll be majoring in Japanese studies this fall, and her paper’s called “The Development of Traditional Performance Arts in Response to Japanese Modernization” with a specialization in bunraku theater. Bunraku, I have since discovered, means “Japanese puppet shows.” We’ve been traveling to a lot of places, including a small island off Honshu, where we watched a few people put on some very elaborate bunraku performances. Some of the puppets cost as much as $2,000! Their clothes probably cost more than all of mine put together.

As for the boy you mentioned, he reminds me one of this one girl I taught back in Perry Hills Elementary. Her name is Sandra. She’s probably not as creepy as your neighbor—she’s actually quite adorable when she wants to be—but sometimes she worries me.

Just the other day, we went to Himeji Castle. We visited a place called Okiku’s Well, which they say a ghost haunts every night when the castle closes to visitors. I’m not quite sure how Okiku was able to leave Japan or wind up in Applegate, but I just had the oddest experience involving her at the well.

It is because spirits do not often choose to linger in their places of death.

Callie starts visibly when she hears, then sees me, nearly upsetting a cup of tea by her elbow. I realize my mistake and, not wishing to cause her more worry, drift past her sleeping companions and fade from view. When she is assured that I will not return, she resumes her typing, though her hands still shake.


I’ll tell you more once I get to visit you and Uncle Doug. In the meantime, let’s not talk about odd kids and ghosts! How have you been feeling? The program won’t end for another couple of weeks, but I’ve already made arrangements with the Japanese representative to travel to Tokyo instead of leaving with the rest of the students. I’ll see you guys then!

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The days pass slowly, and a profound change comes over Tarquin. He begins to lose weight. Dark circles form under the hollows of his eyes, and he becomes more exhausted, taking to sleeping more frequently. There is very little that I can do.