Tokyo, Japan - 1996
My sister and I pulled up the shade from our window to see if it was finally daylight but it was pitch black out. We weren't sleeping or even close to tired. We were too excited.
My Korean grandmother lived in Tokyo, Japan. My mom took us to visit her and my uncle and later scheduled to visit Seoul, Korea to meet my grandfather.
I remember my grandmother's studio apartment. It was small. Very small.
She had a bunk bed and an extremely deep bathtub. We took a bath every night. We snacked on peaches the entire trip.. me especially. I ate too many.
She owned a Korean BBQ restaurant in Tokyo. I remember the kitchen looking like something out of a Hayao Miyazaki movie. There were sliding walls that led you to different rooms. Naturally my sister and I spent most of our time hiding in the rooms and spying on the guests dining in to eat. One of the regulars at my grandmother's restaurant was the mayor of Kawaguchi. We were invited to his house for dinner where we sat on the floor while his servants waited on us hand and foot. Again, more sliding walls and doors.
We met my uncle for the first time. He was smiling ear-to-ear the entire time and took us shopping for toys in a skyscraper toy store. He let us buy whatever we wanted. I picked out a dollhouse and my sister got a toy fox.
We ate burgers where the female employees had the same haircut, outfit and hats and all said the same thing at the exact same time.
We went to Disney Land.
We did it all.
On our last night in Tokyo, we all gathered at my grandmother's restaurant. As my uncle helped close up, my grandmother and I waited outside for everyone. She had a bicycle with a little basket sitting in between the handle bars. She told me to get in and we could ride around the street while we wait for everyone to come out.
We approached a hill and both decided it'd be fun to go down. And all I remember is being really scared of how fast we were going. We were flying. Eventually, my grandmother lost control of the bike, we crashed and basically smashed into the ground. I flew out of the basket and landed straight on my head and slid. The spokes of the bike took my grandmother and her face right across the street.
I laughed. I cried. I laughed again. I fainted. I woke up. I fell over. I fell asleep.
I remember sitting in the bottom bunk of my grandmother's bed and throwing up nothing but peaches. So many peaches..
I was completely out of my mind.
We went to the hospital. Naturally.
I kicked the nurses and screamed out of confusion. I remember seeing my grandmother crying and reaching for me from her hospital bed. More peach vomit.
Needless to say.. we were in bad shape.
My grandmother received plastic surgery on her face and she healed quite beautifully.
How I survived brain damage is beyond me...
Or did I?
After a few days, I remember escaping the hospital early. A Japanese family-friend scooped me up and out of my bed and carried me down several flights of stairs where a car was waiting for us outside. My family was inside. We flew back to the U.S.
I had a soft spot on the left side of my head for months. My memory of Japan and honestly my childhood is a seriously fuzzy mess. Add years of discovering ecstasy and cocaine on top of it and you have yourself a perfect cocktail of a horrible memory altogether.
No, we did not make it to Seoul. I kind of messed that up. The last time I was in Seoul, I was a newborn and I'd give anything to go back.
As for my grandfather.. He died years later. We never got a chance to meet him. So there's that.
There is no moral to this story. It's just a story. I try to learn as much as I can now, make new and happy memories and hold on to them as long as I can.
I eventually learned to love peaches again. I am a Georgia girl after all.
Yep. Happy hump day!
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