Chapter 59: Land of the Rising Sun, Part V

July 6, 1994, Oguni, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan

“Sakurako!” I hissed. “What are you doing?”

“There are only two weeks left, and I wanted to be with you!”

“Your grandfather is going to KILL me,” I protested, instantly fully awake.

I sat up and scooted away from her. She sat up and faced me.

“I’m fully dressed and you are fully dressed! And we are just talking.”

“And that’s going to matter if he finds his granddaughter in bed with a married «gaijin»?!”

She gasped, “Why use that terrible term?”

“Because that’s the one that’s going to cross his mind if he finds out about this!”

“But I am just visiting! To talk!”

“Getting into bed with me is NOT just visiting to talk!” I protested.

“You think I came here to be with you that way?” she asked.

“Look at it from my perspective. I’m in bed; a pretty, young Japanese girl sneaks into my room, and without so much as saying ‘good evening’, gets under the duvet with me! What am I supposed to think?”

“I’m sorry,” she said, a tear running down her cheek.

She quickly stood, and hurried for the door.

“Sakurako,” I called. “Don’t run away.”

But she slid the door open, slipped out, and shut it behind her. I wanted to follow her out, but if she made it to the main house, which I was sure she would, I might find myself in an even more difficult predicament. No, the only thing to do was to go back to sleep and hope I could talk with her in the morning.

July 7, 1994, Oguni, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan

I sighed when it was Hiroshi who came to the door to be sure I was awake on Thursday morning. I wanted to ask him about what had happened, but I didn’t know what he knew, or how much trouble I might get in if his grandfather found out about Sakurako’s late-night visit. I got up, put on my running clothes, did my exercises, and kata, and then went out to run. I was tempted to just keep running until I got to Tokyo and get out of the country before anything bad happened. But that wasn’t realistic.

I wondered how badly I’d hurt Sakurako the previous night. All indications were that it was completely innocent, minus her getting into bed with me. That said, I didn’t know quite enough about Japanese culture to know if I was seriously misreading the situation or her intent, or if there was something going on at a deeper level that I’d missed. Despite the fact that I was running, I sighed, deeply.

Once again, the universe was telling me not to get too full of myself. I had thought I’d made significant progress, and then, in less than sixty seconds, I’d kicked everything into turmoil because of my past and my prejudices. And I’d hurt a young girl who had asked me to be her friend. And hurt her in perhaps the worst possible way - accusing her of wanting to have sex with me. It didn’t matter if she did or not, either way I’d hurt her. If she didn’t, then I’d hurt her by accusing her of something she had no intention of doing. If she did, then I’d told her uncaringly that I wanted nothing to do with her.

For the first time since I’d set foot in Japan, a swear word crossed my lips - “Shit!” I sighed.

I reached the crossroads and turned back towards the compound but came to a dead stop. Standing in front of me were the black belt and two brown belts.

“You leave Japan!” one of the brown belts said in heavily accented English.

“In two weeks,” I said, holding up two fingers.

“Today!” he said menacingly.

I shook my head, and stepped around them, and resumed my run. I did look back a few times, but they didn’t follow me. Again, just when I thought things were going perfectly, I had a second problem to deal with. Fate, that fickle bitch, had finally located me in Japan and was coming at me with guns blazing. Well, I wasn’t about to take it lying down. If she wanted a fight, she was going to be in for the fight of her life.

The question was, what were the proper responses? With Sakurako, I simply had to talk with her, and so long as she kept her usual practice, I could do that while we were having tea. I couldn’t imagine her not bringing me breakfast without having to explain to her grandmother why, so I was confident she’d be there when I finished my shower. As for the ‘Cobra Kai’, I felt the best approach was to wait and see what happened during the afternoon training session.

I got back to the compound, walked around the garden to cool off, then went into my cottage to shower, taking my gi with me to dress in the bathroom. When I came out, I realized the problem was going to be far more difficult to solve. My breakfast was waiting for me on the low table, but Sakurako was nowhere in sight. I sighed deeply, and went to the table to eat, but it all tasted bitter in my mouth.

My morning meditation was a lost cause. All I could think about was what had happened the previous night, as well as the confrontation on the road earlier in the morning. I scribbled some facts in my journal, but nothing of real value. What I needed right at the moment was someone to talk to, and I had NO clue who that could be. Back home I’d have gone to Elyse or Bethany or Jennifer about the ‘Cobra Kai’, and either my wives or Michelle about Sakurako depending on what I thought her actual motivation was.

The morning training class passed without incident, as the other two black belts who were regularly there were college students home for the summer break. I’d sparred with both of them, with the serious regulation that Sensei Hiro had put in place, and never detected anything but respect. I wished I could communicate directly with them, but neither of them spoke much more English than I did Japanese.

Sakurako wasn’t at lunch because it was a school day, so we were served by Sensei Hiro’s wife. When I finished eating, I sought permission to go do my chores, which was granted. I was very glad to keep busy, but my mind kept going back to the twin problems that had developed. As 5:00pm approached, I had more trepidation than I’d had the previous day, but for a completely different reason. The previous day my unease had been a slight case of nerves. Now it was concern for what those other students were going to do.

I ran the class, following the patterns Sensei Hiro used in the morning class. I made sure to make direct eye contact with the perpetrators, to let them know I wasn’t intimidated. When exercises were finished, I elected to work with the middle belts - above yellow and below brown - on board-breaking techniques. Back home, for training purposes, we had simulation boards that broke when the correct force was applied, but which could be snapped back together. Here we were working with actual planks, which created splinters on the floor. Those had to be painstakingly picked up at the end of the session, and I could guess what my next task was going to be - ensuring all of them were picked up.

When class ended, I went back to my room to change for dinner, returning to the dining room about fifteen minutes later and taking my place at the table. The other black belt was missing, and I wondered again what had been said, if anything. He would have to give SOME explanation to Sensei Hiro, but whatever he had said hadn’t led to any conversation with me, and there was no way I could reasonably ask.

Things weren’t any better with Sakurako, as she didn’t make eye contact with me, and worse, had Haruko serve me. That, I felt would attract attention and require her to make some kind of explanation, as only Sakurako and her grandmother had served me for the three weeks I’d been in Japan. I was sure her grandmother took notice, and hoped they would talk, but in such a way that didn’t get me into any trouble. All I could do was wait to see what happened.

As I ate quietly, and watched Sakurako, I wondered if I’d missed something. I was reasonably sure I hadn’t, but not completely so. She was very intelligent, and I was concerned that I’d let her intelligence lead me to believe she was more mature than she seemed to be. Or, I could be completely mistaken, and she WAS that mature. But did that matter? I didn’t think so, because mature or immature, up until the previous night, she’d done nothing that could even be remotely considered flirting, and her conservative nature wouldn’t have allowed risqué conversation OR behavior.

Our morning ‘tea time’ wasn’t a formal tea ceremony, but it was very intimate, in a friendship kind of way. The same was true for the rainy Sunday afternoon we’d spent together. Wracking my brain, I could only think of two things. First, her repeated statements that she would miss me, and my confirmation I would miss her, and that one instant of contact when our shoulders touched and her hair draped onto my chest. To me, both were innocent, that is, non-sexual, and I certainly didn’t believe Sakurako saw them as sexual.

That meant, sadly, I’d accused her of coming to me for sex when she had no intention of having sex. I felt I’d committed a very serious offense, one I’d need to rectify somehow. The only way I was going to do THAT was talk to her, and there wasn’t a way for me to do that I could think up, unless she came to me. I suppressed a sigh and finished eating. The after-dinner drinks and after-drinks bath didn’t help me at all, and when I got into bed, I had a terrible feeling of foreboding that I couldn’t drive away.

July 8, 1994, Oguni, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan

Hiroshi woke me again, and I decided I couldn’t let it go. Perhaps a word to him might help. I decided to try a gambit and see what I could discern.

“Is Sakurako not feeling well?” I asked.

“Not that I’m aware of, she just asked me to wake you yesterday and today. Perhaps she’s having woman’s troubles. She becomes very difficult during that time.”

She certainly was having troubles - ME! I didn’t believe for a moment she was having her period. Well, OK, maybe she was, but THAT wasn’t the problem. I could only hope she brought my breakfast, and I had a plan for that.

“OK.”

I got up and dressed for my exercises. I did them, ran through a dozen kata, and then set out for my run. Usually, I used the time to think, but today I was on alert and my senses were heightened. I was looking for the ‘Cobra Kai’ and paid very close attention as I approached the crossroad. I saw them, standing beside the store, and steeled myself for the confrontation. Instead of continuing to the crossroad, I looked both ways and crossed the road, stopping directly in front of them.

“We tell you leave Japan!” the brown belt said in heavily accented English.

“In twelve days,” I said, not knowing if he understood or not.

“You not listen!” he said, shifting his weight.

I knew what was coming, and I was mentally and physically prepared for it. What I had to do was be sure that I was not hit in the head. I was sure there was no way I was going to talk my way out of this, but I had to try.

“I don’t want to fight,” I said.

The answer came as a roundhouse kick which I blocked. If all three of them came at me simultaneously, I was going to be in real trouble, which meant I couldn’t just block. I needed to put one of them on the ground, hard, and do so without leaving myself open to the other two. From the corner of my eye, I saw one of the brown belts move, and with my eyes forward, I made a jumping, spinning side kick that surprised him. I caught him on the bridge of his nose, causing him to drop like a sack of potatoes.

Now I had more of an even fight. But I wasn’t going to fight fair. I was going to use every dirty trick I knew. This was a street fight, not sparring in the dojo. I’d barely landed when I made a lunging uppercut at the brown belt and got past his defense, catching him under his chin. He didn’t go down, but was stunned. That left me and a 2nd Dan black belt. I took a step back and blocked his first strike, which was aimed at my head. I dodged the second one, going for my knee. I had to keep my eye on the brown belt, but he wasn’t moving very fast.

But he was moving. I made a spin to dodge and deflect a kick from the black belt, coming face to face with the brown belt, and hit him with three quick jabs in the stomach, taking a blow to the left side from the black belt for my trouble. The brown belt was out of commission now, gasping for breath from three sharp punches to his diaphragm. The black belt and I traded blows to the chest, but both were glancing. And then I remembered that I didn’t have to fight him with Shōtōkan!

I stepped into his punch, allowing a second strike on my left side, grappled his shirt, and took him down to the pavement, hard. His breath left him and I heard his head smack the pavement. All three were out of commission, which meant it was time for me to leave, quickly. I was surprised we hadn’t attracted attention from anyone, but it was still early, probably about 5:20am. I started back up the road to the compound looking behind me regularly. I didn’t see them following me and made it safely back. One thing was for sure, those three were going to have some interesting explaining to do.

The adrenaline was wearing off, and I realized I might have some explaining to do. My side HURT, and it hurt to take a breath. I went into the cottage and stripped off my running gear. There was an angry red blotch on my left side that was going to turn into a hellacious bruise. Each breath caused a sharp pain in my side and I hoped it was just a bad bruise. I gingerly felt around it, wincing as I explored, but I didn’t feel anything move in a way it shouldn’t, but I was no doctor.

I heard the door open, and grabbed a towel and quickly walked out to catch Sakurako in the act of trying to slip in and slip out.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m really sorry. Please talk to me. Stay and have tea.”

She stopped and turned back.

“What happened to your side?” she gasped.

“I had a minor accident,” I fibbed. “Don’t worry about it.”

She shook her head, “Someone hit you or kicked you. And it happened recently.”

“Don’t worry about it. I handled it.”

“One of Grandfather’s students?”

“Don’t worry about it, please. Let me deal with it.”

“I won’t say anything. I promise. One of his students?”

“Three of them. I don’t think they’ll be at practice this afternoon.”

She laughed softly, and shook her head, “You faced down three of his students? By yourself?”

“I didn’t fight fair,” I said.

“Three against one isn’t fair!”

“Two brown belts and a 2nd Dan black belt. But I was ready for them.”

“How?”

“They threatened me yesterday. But say NOTHING to your grandfather, please!”