“Oh, I like these,” I exclaim.

“They are only fair.”

“I sure like them.”Bonsai are supposed to be small, but I like things big and
impressive. In front of me is a tree, a pine tree, a very old pine tree. It’s eighteen
inches high and even wider. It presumably has been pruned and forced to assume
exquisite shapes over the years. It now resembles an acacia tree in east Africa with

gravity-defying branches swooping wide toward the ground, then up towards the

sky. Everything is miniature, even the needles and gnarled bark and boulders
surrounding the trunk. “I’d like to send this one home.”

“Botanical regulations would prevent it. And look at the price!”

The price is in yen, so I divide by 350 to get dollars. “Out of the question! I
agree. “Let’s see what else is here.”

Here we find a display of origami. “Each of these has been folded from a
single piece of square paper, Morley.”

“How could anyone sculpt something like that by folding a piece of paper?”

“No cutting or pasting is allowed, only folding.”

“Amazing!”

“Every child learns to make the crane (tsuru) in school. The crane is the
symbol of peace. I’ve folded thousands of them. I’ll show you how when we get
home.”

“Sounds like fun, Yoshimi. Let’s do it.”

“I’m hungry. Shall we stop and have some misoshiru?”

“What’s misoshiru?

“It’s soup made from fermented bean paste. Shops that serve it also offer
ocha (tea), and udon or soba.”

“Udon and soba?”

“Noodles. Udon is made from wheat; soba is made from buckwheat.”

page:

39

Japanby Morley Evans

November 21, 2000