She seemed to have forgotten all about her own important day. The first train leaves Goshogawara at eight o'clock, travels north on the Tsugaru Railway, passes through Kanagi without stopping, and arrives at nine in Nakazato, the end of the line of the Tsugaru Railway. Then I will ride the bus to Kodomari for around two hours and arrive in Kodomari by noon tomorrow. At dusk, Kei-chan and I finally went home and met the Doctor (we've been calling the doctor groom by the proper noun for a long time) returning home from the hospital. We drank sake and I talked nonsense until midnight.
The next morning I was awakened by my cousin, gulped down breakfast, and rushed to the depot in time to catch the first train. Again, the weather was good. My head was in a fog and I had a hangover. Since there was no one scary at the house in Trendy Town, I drank a little too much the previous night. A cold sweat moistened my forehead. The refreshing morning sun shined into the train. Only I had the unbearable feeling of being muddy, dirty, and rotting. I always have this feeling of self-hatred after drinking too much sake. Perhaps, I've repeated this experience several thousand times but still lack the resolve to quit drinking. Because I'm a hard drinker, I tend to be taken lightly by others. If this world had no sake, I seriously believed the nonsense that I may have become a saint. While thinking these thoughts, I lazily stared out the window at the Tsugaru Plain. Finally, we passed Kanagi and arrived at Ashinokoen, a small station no bigger than a crossing guard station.
I recall an anecdote about the mayor of Kanagi. He tried to buy a ticket to Ashinokoen at Ueno Station in Tokyo and was told indignantly that no such station existed and no one had ever heard of Ashinokoen on the Tsugaru Railway. He made the station employee search for thirty minutes and finally obtained a ticket to Ashinokoen.
When I leaned out of the window and saw that tiny station, a young woman wearing a kimono of Kurume-kasuri cloth and monpe pants made from the same fabric was carrying a large bundle in a wrapping cloth under each arm. She ran to the ticket gate and, with her eyes slightly closed, gently offered her ticket in her mouth to the good-looking, young station attendant. The young man understood and moved his hand like a skilled dentist extracting a front tooth to the red ticket held between rows of bright white teeth and deftly clipped it with his scissors. Neither the young woman nor the young man smiled the tiniest smile. Their composure seemed ordinary. The young woman hopped on the train about to leave. It seemed like the engineer had been waiting for that young woman to board. This idyllic station resembles no other in the entire country. The mayor of Kanagi should shout "Ashinokoen!" in his loudest voice the next time he's at Ueno Station.
The train ran through a forest of larch trees. This area became Kanagi Park. I could see a marsh. Long ago, my older brother donated a sightseeing boat to this marsh. In no time we arrived in Nakazato, a small village with a population of four thousand. From this area on, Tsugaru Plain becomes narrow and small. When we arrived at the hamlets of Uchigata, Aiuchi, and Wakimoto north of here, the paddy fields were considerably smaller. This place could be called the North Gate of the Tsugaru Plain. When a boy, I came to visit a relative, a dry goods dealer named Kanamaru. I may have been four and only remember a waterfall at the edge of the village.
"Shuuuchiiiyaa," I was being called and turned to see Kanamaru's daughter standing there smiling. She must have been one or two years older than me but didn't look older.
"It's been a long time. Where are you going?"
"To Kodomari," I said, impatient to see Take. I paid attention to nothing else.
"Well, my bus is here. Excuse me, bye."
"On your way back, please stop by the house. We built a new house on top of that mountain."
When I looked in the direction she was pointing, a new house stood alone on top of a small mountain of greenery to the right of the station. Even though she wasn't Take, I was happy to have this chance encounter with a familiar face from my childhood and will stop by that new house to ask about Nakazato. For no reason, I was impatient with no time to lose.
"Well, be seeing you," we separated exchanging pleasantries and I hopped on the bus.
The bus was crowded. I had to stand for the two-hour trip to Kodomari. This would be the first time in my life I would see Nakazato and parts further north. The Ando clan called the forefathers of the Tsugaru lived in this area. I discussed the prosperous Port Jusan earlier, but the center of the history of the Tsugaru Plain seems to lie between Nakazato and Kodomari. The bus traveled north along mountain roads. The roads looked bad and the bus shuddered. I clutched the horizontal bar of the luggage rack, rounded my back, and watched the scenery pass by the bus window.
So this is northern Tsugaru. Compared to the landscape of Fukaura, this place was wild everywhere. There was no scent of human skin. Mountain trees, thorny shrubs, and bamboo grass live with no relationship to humanity. Compared to Tappi on the eastern shore, this area was tamer. The grasses and trees were on the brink of being landscape. I didn't chat with any of the travelers. Lake Jusan turned a chilly white before my eyes.
The lake had an elegant but impermanent feeling like water filling a shallow pearl
