Tonight I was invited to dinner at Muraoka-sensei's home. He had mentioned it late April, then again earlier this week. When he was asking me about it, and the food I liked, his eyes somewhat widened when I said I liked sushi. I think it'd be silly to come to Japan and not like seafood or be willing to 'go native' as it were. The japanese eat a ton of seafood.
I met with sensei after school and we drove together to his home. Normally he takes the train, it's not very far, took about 25min to drive (his mini-van was really nice with a screen that showed behind him when backing up). Along the way we talked a bit about teaching. I've explained to quiet a few people at school about how I came to be studying art education and their eyes always widen when I tell them how I used to be a working stiff graphic designer. Today I explained more to Muraoka-sensei about the pressure I felt from working with commodity and commercialization and how I chose teaching because it was more connected and fulfilling. In return, I found out how Muraoka-sensei had started in ceramics as a hobby, then into teaching it part time. The teaching led to more school, where he studied under a master of nihon-ga and on from there. I found out later that he was also able to travel around Europe, seeing Paris, Italy, the Netherlands, London, and Switzerland over the course of a month. Most interesting to me was when I learned of his interest in Celtic art and culture, because of perceived similarities with the Japanese and their belief of 'God manifest in Nature'. He's also been to Ireland a number of times and driven around the island (which isn't much of a stretch with the narrow roads and left-side driving), so we were able to discuss both our travels there (his more extensively than mine.) A final bit of information was his enjoyment of Michelangelo's Rondanini Pietà from his time in Italy. This is Michelangelo's final sculpture, which some say is unfinished, though Muraoka-sensei did not believe so.
When we arrived to the Muraoka household, I met his wife and 8 yr-old son. They were very pleasant and both parents spoke understandable english (and where either party was lacking there were plenty of dictionaries around). The son was shy about his english and a few times whispered in his mothers ear because he was too shy to talk aloud. I found out how the wife had spent some time in Illinois when she was younger, and some of the things she remembered from there. One was the size, all the corn fields and large houses, she asked if I thought their house was super small, but I told them there are plenty of 3-person families living the same in Boston or elsewhere, def small if one was out in the burbs or country, but there was enough space, Muraoka-sensei even had a studio on the second floor, with long lines of pigment in jars. Another, Cherrios! and the long aisle of breakfast cereal. Whenever someone she knows visits the US, she asks that they bring back a box of Cherrios for her.
The food was great, a big plate of shashimi (tuna, crab, shrimp, roe, two others we couldn't really figure out english words for), another plate of avacado and vegetables, a bowl of rice, and nori to put it all together. Also a plate of chicken wings (though served differently as they were room temperature, very salty and without sauce), a plate of meats (which was barely touched), and a plate of japanese egg (they cook an egg omelet but include sugar, so it's sweet pieces of egg). I was also offered some beer or wine (I went for beer because we had stopped to get it on the way there), and my glass would be refreshed whenever it got low (though we really only went through 2x100ml cans). The son was very excited about desert, and we had ice cream and fresh strawberries over coffee and tea (which the son enjoyed because it made him feel more like an adult). After which an Enya cd was put on.
During dinner, talked about a number of things. Life in the US, life in Japan, family, art, food, etc. Also holidays, and while I had known most Japanese celebrate Christmas to some extent as a gift giving occasion, I was curious about things like Halloween, which apparently they do celebrate because Tokyo Disney has introduced it into the culture. I showed some family photos from my Ipod, which went over well, and the son found it particularly funny that my grandfather was also named Seth. I saw the family shrine, which had art objects and male-oriented objects like reproduction armor and weapons. I also saw the carp flag, which the son had made and was flown during Golden week as a signal of having a male child in the household. When my sisters marriage came up, it was asked if she had any kids, and I learned that the mother had been almost 40 yrs-old when they had started a family. Again, discussions of age are fairly common in Japan, and having a family, or getting married, starts much later in Japan than might be common in the US.
I probably overstayed my welcome a little bit. It was never discussed how I would get back, and I had expected Muraoka-sensei would probably insist on driving me home, while I would have to insist on simply taking the train. But Muraoka-sensei brought the subject up by telling me about drunk driving in Japan, he wasn't drunk, having perhaps 1 beer over a few hours, but laws are incredibly strict, with your license revoked for a single infraction, and a hefty fine of $500/person. So if you've been drinking at all, and have four people in your vehicle, that's a hefty fine! It was agreed I would take the train, and we rushed out to the station for the next departure. I was very thankful for the hospitality, and the son followed us partway down the street on the way out. He had told some of his classmates and neighbors that a gaijin was coming for dinner, and so all the families wanted to have a BBQ sometime in June for me and a few of my classmates. I look forward to it, especially because in our rush to catch the next train I forgot I wanted to ask if I could take their photo as a remembrance of the evening.
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